


Return to the Bay

by TheCrazyFriend



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2020-07-31 14:50:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 24,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20116882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCrazyFriend/pseuds/TheCrazyFriend
Summary: It was five years before she had visited Arcadia Bay and when she did return to her roots, everything had changed





	1. Return to the bay

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all, I'm back and publishing a new fic despite the risk of pissing someone else off

A young brunette woman stepped down from her brand spanking new black Ford F150 truck and inhaled the sea air of Arcadia Bay. _Hm, I forgot how quaint this place was..._ The young woman thought as her lips curled up in disgust at her hometown, _give me San Diego anytime over this medieval town_. The young woman's brunette hair fell down to her shoulders at the back and hid her ears while the front part of her hair was cut quite a bit shorter allowing her observant ocean blue eyes to watch everything going on around her unimpeded. “Never thought I'd be back here...” Gripping her camera bag tightly she ventured up the path that led to the lighthouse, “at least I'm getting paid a lot of money to come here, the ass crack of nowhere. The only good thing about this place...” she abruptly cut herself off. _No, Caulfield. Don't even go there_. Scolding herself whenever her thoughts drifted in that particular direction had been one of the few things that had kept her sane. _I have to be at that pretentious private school by four, that's when I'll be meeting the person who's supposed to show me around the school. I have time though, time to spend a half-hour or so doing photography_. The young woman relaxed some, it had been five long years since she had last stood in her hometown and now she had gotten over the shock of how run down and decrepit it looked, she had begun to see its charm. Wandering over to the lighthouse she inspected the stump. “Oh my god, it’s still there!!” The brunette covered her mouth with her hand as her eyes watered, “Max and Chloe, BFF pirates 2008...” The brunette whispered to herself. _Oh, Chloe..._ she quickly turned away from the stump and ran into the cover of the trees for some privacy, tears just starting to run down her cheeks, just in time as someone had been ascending the cliff toward the beautiful cliffside. _Don't want anyone to see me crying after all... I'm supposed to be too old for that shit_

Steph Gingrich had been ascending the path with June, a girl she had met at the local diner, the Two Whales and therefore didn't see the brunette as she ran for cover. June had moved to Arcadia Bay recently and had gotten up early for once, she was an emergency surgeon at Arcadia General Hospital who preferred the on the whole quieter night shifts so she spent her days in bed and her nights awake but it was a special day to them. Both girls had asked each other out on a date at the same time and they had both agreed, though both were slightly flustered by the fact they'd both tried asking at exactly the same time. Since Steph had lived in Arcadia Bay her entire life they had agreed that she would decide what they'd be doing that day since she knew the area so well. “You gotta at least see the lighthouse one time, June!!” Steph grumbled, fidgeting anxiously just before the clearing next to the lighthouse. “It's basically the lighthouse and the Two Whales, that's all this shitty little town has to offer, we don't even have the Mill or Overlook Park anymore not since they both burned down. Arson supposedly” Steph shrugged as she spoke, preempting the other woman's question. “No idea who caused it. Not even the town's resident blunette hellraiser would go that far, maybe it was that Damon bloke who stabbed Rachel while she was searching for her mother?” The details surrounding Rachel's injury were shrouded in mystery, like most aspects of the blonde yet she didn't manage to hide all the details and over the years various little tidbits became public  
“Steph!!” June exclaimed, “I've seen the lighthouse, pretty hard to... wow” June gazed out across the seemingly neverending Pacific Ocean in stunned amazement. She had seen the lighthouse but Steph didn't want her to see the lighthouse, it was true that could be seen from anywhere in the Bay, she wanted to show the blonde the amazing view  
“Yea... That's why I insisted we come here before our meal” Steph explained smugly. “I told you that you wouldn't want to miss it”

Max's head twisted around at the auburn-haired girl's comment about Rachel, she had been startled by the comment and had hastily wiped her eyes of the tears before creeping closer, intrigued. Had Chloe been there she would’ve remarked on how she was still Max Caulfield; the nosiest little shit in the whole of Arcadia Bay. _I kinda want to know more about Rachel, she's still pretty much a mystery to me. If this Steph girl hangs out with her then it might be a good way to get acquainted with her, she's a model and I'm a photographer after all. Perhaps there will be time?_ The freckled brunette peeked around one of many large trees and her eyes fell upon the pair for the first time. Her first thought was how much of a nerd Steph looked to be, she had a dragon necklace that looked to be a design from the tabletop game she and Chloe used to play when they were still in each other’s lives, her second was how cute Steph looked and her third was how amazingly unbelievably _stunning_ June was. _Oh shit_. Max pulled back and slammed her back into the tree out of sight of the couple who were sat on the bench by the lighthouse, holding hands and gazing out over the ocean while ignoring everything save the view and each other. The young brunette had come to a startling realization, an epiphany. _Do... Do I like girls?_ Max peeked around the tree again to take another look at the blonde, feeling a strange sensation in her body and a slight warming in her cheeks. _I... I think I do_

“Someone was stabbed?” the blonde young woman asked in surprise, the other girl's comment finally reaching her awestruck brain, overwhelmed by the cute girl who's hand was in hers and the stunning view offered by the bench they were sat on. The town seemed so quiet, so peaceful to her, even the rush on the days where the single nightlife venue in the bay was packed with partying young adults from the local private school while high on various substances wasn’t really a rush, nor were the nights that Blackwell Academy's Vortex Club ran parties, at least not usually.  
“Yeah. Rachel, a girl who went to the school I went to, Blackwell Academy. Blackwell is that private arts and sciences school that gives you most of your work at the hospital on Friday and Saturday. She was stabbed years ago but she'll show you the scar if you ask nicely”

_That's... Chloe's school. I hope she's okay and not somehow involved, with this Damon thing, that firesetting incident or that Rachel Amber_. Despite her resolution not to get lost in the past, Max continued to ponder, _Chloe always was the type to stick her nose in where it didn't belong_. Max paused, realizing she was describing both herself and her friend so she added a concluding thought; _and get into heaps of trouble for it_


	2. Kate

Max had finished observing Steph and her girlfriend from the shadows in the time she had intended on setting aside for herself and by the time they had left the cliffside, Max was going to be late. She sprinted down the hill back to her truck, threw the door open and jumped in. Swearing under her breath the brunette slammed it into gear and revved the engine, jerking the truck forward using the momentum to close the door at the same time. _Only gonna be late by a few minutes if you put your foot down_. Although before flooring it she checked in the mirrors to find a police cruiser a few cars back. _Shit. Arcadia Bay's finest right where I don't want them. Typical._

Forced to obey the speed limit, Max arrived at Blackwell fifteen minutes later than she should have, jumped out and walked up the steps to the courtyard of the academy. She rubbed her sweaty hands together having had to swerve to avoid a vastly speeding decrepit old truck that was zooming away from campus even as she was driving toward it forcing her off the road and on to the grassy hill that formed the verge. “Fucking asshole!!” Max had yelled out her window at the truck in which she glimpsed a flash of blue in the driver’s side. _Cereal, they're gonna kill someone!_ Max hadn't seen the middle finger the blue had raised proudly at her in retaliation for her yelling  
“I'm looking for a Kate Marsh?” Max had inquired of the first person she had come across, a tall brunette who had been dancing on her little patch of grass to some music being played on an MP3 player  
“Oh, our resident Church Mouse is over there” she indicated a blonde bun-wearing girl sat near to where an older man was sweeping the paths. “She's such a sweetie, you must be the newest potential student here. Word spread after Victoria overheard the Principal talking to our Church Mouse” Max noticed how the young woman's face scrunched up in distaste as she spoke of another one of the students. “Name’s Dana Ward”  
_Church Mouse... Cute nickname, cuter girl_. “Max. Max Caulfield” Max stuck out her hand which Dana accepted.  
“So, you're the photographer that Wells was gushing about...” Dana continued speaking  
“He was?” Max furrowed her brow in confusion, she hadn't believed that her photography was anything special  
The brunette nodded, then Dana caught sight of another girl and hurried off, calling back over her shoulder. “We’ll have to talk again, Max Caulfield”  
Max shrugged as she sprinted over to another girl and hugged her tightly, _old friends reunited... Wish it was that simple for Ch... No, Caulfield. Bad Caulfield!!_

“Uh excuse me, you're Kate Marsh, right?” Max had finally reached Kate who was still feeding the little critters that hung around the old man  
“Yes!! You must be Max Caulfield! I'm so sorry, I didn't know if you were coming and these little critters were chittering around my feet”  
“It’s fine. Do you always feed them, Kate Marsh?”  
“Kate Marsh is a very gentle soul and the squirrels are always thankful for the food that she gives them. Samuel is grateful too” the man who had been sweeping the paths who was now fiddling around with something amongst the flowers spoke unexpectedly in his unusual third-person way  
“Uh hi,” Max waved at him awkwardly. _Creepy_  
“You have returned to the bay then, young Max Caulfield. The squirrels were always telling old Samuel that when young Max returned Samuel was to give her a simple message. Don't do it, you will regret it for the rest of your life. Talk to her. Don't come here, do what you have to do and just leave again”  
Perturbed, Max backed away from the older man. _What... The fuck?! Does he know??? He can't know!_  
“Yeah well, I'll see you later Samuel, I'll bring you some tea” Kate, ever the tactful young woman ended the conversation with Samuel politely noticing just how freaked out the newcomer had become  
“Samuel is grateful to know you, young Miss. Marsh”  
With that, Kate threw the last few nuts she had been feeding to the squirrels and gently cajoled Max along from where she had been stood staring at the older man in shock and horror. “Come on, Max... Let's get this show on the road”


	3. Chapter 3

“Mmph” the blonde woman rolled over slightly on the bed and bumped into someone. “What?” She mumbled groggily, opening her eyes slightly and finding a flash of blue surrounding what she could see of the person she was led next to. “Chlo? Chlo, is that you?” But the blue-haired girl didn't respond, she was still out of it. _What's going on, where am I? Is this a motel, how drunk did I get last night, how long was I out?_  
“Sorry about that” another voice stated, the voice that the blonde didn't recognize was filled with mild regret. “She should be coming out of it soon”  
“What... Coming out of what?” Rachel's voice was raspy and she cleared her throat to try and ease the scratchiness  
“Out of the influence,” the woman replied  
“Wait... You _drugged_ her?!” The young blonde woman attempted to roll over onto her back from where she had been led on her side but struggled to do so. Rachel wanted nothing more than to take a swing at the other person but was barely able to roll over let alone push herself off the bed  
“Yes, I did. I had to dose you both” there was a click as the door shut, leaving the blonde alone with her thoughts while her dosed friend snoozed on

_What the fuck happened? Who was that woman and why the fuck did she have to dose us? Where even are we?_ The blonde groaned quietly, trying again to roll over so she could attempt to sit up with a bit more success. “Chloe... Chloe, wake up” the blonde shook the blunette’s shoulder slightly but the other girl didn't stir. “Chloe!!” _Oh god, what am I gonna tell her? I cheated on her with Frank. She's gonna hate me if I tell her but if I don't and she finds out she'll definitely hate me. Fuck, damned if I do, damned if I don't. Why the fuck did I cheat on her with Frank? I could’ve had anyone yet I chose a smelly dirty drug dealer, I could've had Chloe!_ The blonde slowly sat up since her head was pounding and the room was spinning, both of which were made worse by the attempt to sit up and bent over forward, puke spewing into a well-placed bucket. “S-shit” Rachel grimaced at her hair getting covered with puke. 

Rachel sat on the edge of the bed with her head between her legs for awhile and after several hours she felt a little better. “Thanks a fucking bunch random person who drugged us”  
“Mmmm, Rach?” Chloe groaned and rolled over, she seemed to be coping with the drugs a bit better than Rachel  
“Chloe!!!” Rachel spun around and reached out for her blunette friend  
“Rachel” Chloe spoke calmly  
“I'm here, Chlo” Rachel extended her hand for Chloe's shoulder but the blunette shrugged her hand off as her eyes met Rachel's  
“I know what you did” Chloe's normally warm blue eyes were cold as ice as she spoke calmly, continuing to stare Rachel directly in the eyes  
“You know what I did?” the blonde’s brows furrowed  
“Yes. Rachel Dawn Amber! I know about you and Frank!!”  
_Oh shit_. “Chloe...” Rachel began but was cut off by Chloe  
“Don't fucking _Chloe_ me, Rachel!! You cheated on me with _Frank_, I saw it all!!”  
“It's my biggest regret” Rachel mumbled, she was telling the truth but everyone knew that Rachel Amber had many masks so she wouldn't be surprised if Chloe didn't believe her  
“Don’t give me that _bullshit_!” Chloe snapped  
“But... But Chloe” While Rachel had suspected that Chloe wouldn't believe her, it still broke her heart and she felt the beginnings of tears gathering in the corner of her eyes  
“NO!!! Fuck this, _fuck you_!!” Chloe snapped, enraged. The blunette groaned, rolled to the edge of the bed and slowly attempted to stand. After a few attempts, she managed to stand and stumbled toward the door while Rachel attempted to stand again  
“Chloe, please!!” Rachel's usually perfect hair was all disheveled and her makeup was starting to run, the tears were flowing.  
Chloe ignored Rachel's pleas and left, slamming the door behind her. “Chloe... Chloe, no” _Shit. I'm sorry, I'm so so so sorry._

It was another few hours before the door opened then shut again and a dark-haired woman with pink tips entered. “The blunette has gone?”  
“Y-you... Who are you?” Rachel had just about regained her composure after Chloe stormed out and full control of her body after being dosed  
“My name is June Duncan. You're safe, it’s been a couple days but you're safe”  
“Wait... Steph’s girlfriend!?” The black-haired woman nodded. “Okay, _bitch_. I'm going to go find Chloe”  
“You can't. I'm sorry, perhaps it's better that you two go your separate ways” the woman shook her head, making a show of locking the door  
“No!! I'm not leaving Chloe!!” Rachel protested  
“Trust me, it's better that way. She has a chance of a normal life that way”  
“What the _fuck_ do you mean?!”


	4. Chapter 4

Chloe left the motel and stormed away from the motel, recognizing the motel as one of the ones on the southern outskirts of Arcadia Bay. “What the fuck?” she scratched the back of her neck and shook her head. _Still don't quite know how we ended up here. Last I remember I was going to meet Rachel to give that bitch a piece of my mind regarding her and Frank then I kinda woke up at that motel with nothing in between_. Chloe, though thankful that she recognized where she was, knew and was annoyed by the fact that it was going to be quite a walk back to the junkyard where she could pick up her truck and head home. She wasn’t that interested in going back for Rachel since the fury she felt toward the blonde was still so intense. “Fuck you, Rach” Chloe seethed silently save from cursing Rachel's name

Three hours later Chloe reached the junkyard, slumping into the driver's side with a sigh of relief. “Fuck” she muttered, pulling out a cigarette and fumbling around for her lighter. “Where's my fucking lighter!!” The blunette’s patience was being tested to the limit since she was still upset with the lies Rachel told and had almost gotten away with, she didn't know it but had left her lighter with Rachel. _Fucking hell!!_ Chloe seethed, _I didn't fucking lie to her about the shit involving Sera! Why does she fucking think it's okay to lie about her and Frank screwing!!_ She eyed the bat she had used on occasion whenever she had gotten too pissed off with David who was still very much the step-douche to her but didn't get out of her truck to do anything, her breathing was a little strained by the long walk back to the junkyard. The blunette picked up her phone from where she left it, surprised that its charge had lasted since she had last charged it a few days beforehand. Ignoring the texts from David, Chloe checked the latest text from her mom and replied quickly

**[SMS, Joyce: 1709]** 'Are you and Rachel going to be back here for dinner?’  
**[SMS: 1855]** 'Just me. That bitch won't be joining us’

It took Chloe a mere twenty minutes to go from the junkyard to her place, she parked haphazardly on the drive, not really caring that her truck was skewed so that her wheels were on the grass. The blunette awkwardly clambered out through the window of her truck since the door of the junker had gotten jammed up at some point. “Fuck”  
“Chloe!! Language!!” Joyce called from over by the door having been waiting on the bottom stair of the house for most of the time that Chloe had been missing once the second night came and went  
“Where HAVE you been, Missy??” David’s unpleasant dulcet voice echoed from the garage  
“Fuck knows, douche. I woke up this morning in a motel” Chloe snapped back. She didn't know what had happened but she wasn't about to reveal that to her parents  
“You've been gone for days, Chloe” Joyce interjected, her tone one of worry.  
“I know, now. I seriously don't recall much of the previous few days. I'm sorry” Chloe grumbled quietly once she finished speaking, she was still pretty heartbroken by Rachel's actions and deceit. “I must've gotten hella drunk” she muttered quietly  
“I’d like to do a sobriety test on you, Missy” David spoke, still scowling angrily  
“Fuck yourself”  
“Chloe Elizabeth Price!!” Joyce snapped  
“Well honestly. I'm fucking sick of it” Chloe turned to storm out of the room  
“Don't you leave this room!!” David bellowed

Chloe stormed out of the room ignoring David’s demands, thundering up the stairs and slamming her door. _Fucking asshole_. From the top of the stairs she retreated quickly into her room, using a chair to block the door so that David couldn't get in. Chloe knew that David was more than likely to be following her up the stairs as he usually did just so he could express his disappointment with her and sure enough there were heavy footsteps following her up the stairs.  
“CHLOE ELIZABETH PRICE!!” David started hammering on Chloe's door  
_For the love of..._ Chloe eyed her window, sighed and rolled her eyes as she clambered out of the window just before David managed to knock Chloe's door down, causing it to crack in the process. “Fuck yaself, dickhead!!” Chloe bellowed, running to her truck to escape the house she hated so much

*****

“Her name is Chloe, not blue” Rachel snapped. “And I'm not fucking leaving without her!!” Rachel's fury faltered for a moment and the blonde then pleaded with the other young woman. “I promised I’d take her with me when I leave Arcadia Bay and after all that shit I pulled...”  
“I don't want her involved” the other girl replied firmly


	5. Chapter 5

Chloe stepped out of her truck and slammed the door harder than she had intended to but, with a temper like hers the door had gotten off lightly. The girl took a few steps toward Blackwell, she wanted to get away from Rachel and David but the latter went without saying since she hated him so went looking for Steph, quickly spotting her at her usual spot with the nerd boys and someone she didn't recognize. “Steph!!” she called. “Arcadia Gay's resident nerd”  
“Price!” she replied with a smile, waving the blunette punk over. “Nice to see you, you're looking pretty...”  
“Pissed off?” Chloe replied with a confirmatory nod, “yea well, can we talk... In private?”  
Steph looked to the girl who sat with her head on her shoulder, her eyes barely visible through the pink-tipped bangs. The stranger nodded, “Chloe, this is my girlfriend, June Duncan” Steph indicated the girl in question who smiled a friendly yet reserved smile though her eyes were covered by her hair  
“Ah!” the blunette exclaimed, “I see the mythical June has finally joined us here in Arcadia Gay” Chloe knew of June, Steph hadn't been quiet about being taken despite most girls overlooking her since she was the nerd of Blackwell, something which Chloe thought of as a mistake. Alongside Chloe and Steph, a disproportionate amount of Blackwell's student body were gay or bi, hence why they called the town Arcadia Gay  
“Sorry Chloe, maintaining a long-distance relationship with someone who used to live in Miami was very difficult” Steph replied sheepishly, she hadn't been hanging out with Chloe as much as she perhaps should have been, not since her girlfriend arrived in town  
“I could tell from the beginning,” Chloe rolled her eyes, she had some idea of what her nerd friend and her girlfriend had been getting up to but she didn't want ‘all the deets'. “D’ya know how hard it was to find you, Steph?”  
“Yea well I love my little Stephy-poo. I had several years without her so...” June spoke for the first time and the boys’ eyes widened, they hadn't heard the girl speak so were somewhat surprised when she decided that Chloe was worth speaking to, most of the time before that, her lips were busy kissing Steph's hand  
“Ooh nicknames, you're fucking adorable and it's making my teeth ache” Chloe pointed at the girl’s hairstyle, “love the pink”  
“It's great, isn't it? I kinda like your blue too” June replied, moving her head so she could see the different parts of Chloe's hair, from the blue, to the light purple, all the way down to the strawberry blonde roots  
“Blue is awesome, yanno people used to call me Bluebeard?”  
“Oh gee here we go again, another Max story” Mikey groaned playfully  
“Max?” June had no idea who that was and it showed, she had picked up on the fact that to the group that person’s name was muck  
“Yea, June” Steph began, “Max ‘never Maxine' Caulfield was Chloe's bestest friend forever and ever and ever, at least she was before she turned her back on her and left for Seattle. By the time Rachel and I were able to help her, she had been broken for years”  
“Ouch. Traitor much?” June grumbled  
“I know. That wasn't even the worst of it!” Steph snapped, still furious on Chloe's behalf. “She left on the day of Chloe's father's funeral. Halfway through the fucking service!” It still bothered Steph even after all those years, she and Rachel had had to do quite a lot of picking up the pieces after Chloe had been shattered by Max abandoning her when she needed her the most  
“Wow, what a bitch. I don't even know this Maxine and already I can't help but think of how much of a massive douchebag she was” June admitted  
“Pfft, you have no idea. Not a single call or text for five years” Chloe provided, having no idea whether she would punch Max in the face or crush her to death in a hug if she saw her and having an internal war over that very question  
“Bitch,” June repeated her earlier sentiment. She had seen Chloe's wallet, had seen the Polaroid but hadn't known who she was and as she knew, she immediately decided to keep it to herself that she had seen that girl around. She had a goal to protect Steph's friends after all  
“Drew, Mikey, how are you two? Waldo, you too?” Chloe had already moved the topic on to check how the other nerds, Drew and Mikey North and Warren Graham were getting on

Unbeknownst to anyone in that small group, a girl ran off into the woods, furiously wiping her eyes to get rid of the tears that had gathered that's despite the girl wishing that that wouldn't. _Shit! Shit! Shit!_

*****

Chloe eventually left her friends behind after a few hours of chatting and playing their tabletop game, Callamastia caused her usual amount of trouble as she always did, enjoying her time as a hero having been roped in as the Slayer of Duurgaron to help stabilize the kingdom of Avernon. Her newfound status as the woman who killed Duurgaron came with an equal helping of mercilessly cutting down the former dictator's remaining followers which, Chloe being Chloe, she enjoyed immensely and leading by example much to Chloe's annoyance as she suspected Steph was trying to teach her _respect and responsibility_ though perhaps moreso the latter.

The blunette had originally been heading home to eat with her family when suddenly she had an image of Rachel, of the beautiful blonde thespian led by the side of the road with a bullet hole in the side of her head, her eyes blank and unseeing with the perpetual flame that had always burned behind them snuffed forevermore. “Shit!!” The blunette growled, slamming her foot on the throttle and yanking the steering wheel at the last second to head for the motel instead. She didn't know where the image came from but she was shaken up by it and decided to check on Rachel who she had left at the motel with no way of getting back home since the girl’s sense of direction was so spectacularly awful.

When she arrived at the motel it was seemingly as abandoned as it was when she left it earlier in the day. Chloe jumped out of her truck and hurried toward the motel room she remembered storming out of, scared out of her mind that Rachel had indeed been taken somewhere to be killed. Something kept on telling her that Rachel was indeed in danger and despite it freaking her the fuck out the blunette kept pushing forward. She had grabbed David’s gun from under her seat and was planning to take it in with her, rushing toward the door where she knew Rachel was. She slowed right down, reaching for the gun when the door suddenly opened. There was a pause of a few seconds then... “Chloe!!” Rachel rushed out and wrapped her arms around the blunette  
“Rach, are you... Okay?” Chloe allowed her concern to show through  
“Chlo, we gotta get moving” Rachel replied, allowing her anxiety to show  
“What the fuck?” Chloe was taken off guard and it showed, the blunette had no idea what was going on.  
“Get in the car!!” Rachel snapped. “June told me how much danger we’re both in. We have to get the hell outta town!” the frantic blonde was followed by the bemused blunette as both clambered into the car, Rachel started the engine and encouraged Chloe to tear away from the motel at a speed that was far too quick for the road.  
“June? June Duncan, Steph's girl?”  
“Do you have your phone?” Rachel asked, choosing to ignore the blunette’s question in favor of ensuring their safety  
“Sure, here...” Chloe handed it over and Rachel promptly threw it out of the moving vehicle, watching it smash on the blacktop. “HEY!!” Chloe whirled around and glared at Rachel. “I'm pulling the fuck over!!” she yanked the wheel and careened off the road, swearing again as Rachel pulled on the wheel, getting them back on the road much to the annoyance of the car behind them who blasted their horn and made an obscene gesture at both women as he overtook them which Chloe returned in kind  
“No, Chloe. We can't, just get us to Portland. I'll explain once we get to wherever the hell we're going” Rachel pleaded with the punk  
“Wherever the hell we're going?” Chloe replied incredulously, getting really fed up really quickly  
“Babe...”  
“Don’t call me that” Chloe snapped  
“Chlo” Rachel's voice had taken on a slight whine  
“Or that”  
“Okay, Chloe.” _Fuck, cruel. Guess I deserve it though_ “We're heading to the airport, June said our lives depend on us getting out of the country. If we don't well, we’ll both get murdered”  
“Fuck, you have gone crazy” Chloe mumbled

Several moments of awkward silence passed before Rachel had the guts to speak up again. “I'm totally serious, Chloe! I really mean this, I know I lied to you about Frank and Jefferson but I'm totally being completely serious here. We're supposedly in danger and we have to run, I wouldn't care of it was just me but you're in danger too Chloe, if I stayed you'd end up dead...” Rachel struggled to contain a sob which was slowly building in intensity. “Banging Frank and Jefferson were the biggest mistakes I've ever made and I totally, completely a hundred percent regret it. I'm sorry, I know I don't deserve to love you but I do, and I won't ever allow you to get hurt again”  
“So we’re really doing this, huh? Leaving, without a trace?” Chloe had put two and two together after Rachel destroyed her phone  
“it’s the only way... Chloe, I'm sorry. I don't know why we’re in danger just that I can't risk you”  
“Fine...” Chloe's expression had softened slightly, “I'm still mad with you but it always was our goal to leave the bay, am I right?”  
“Yea... Chloe, would you mind opening the glove compartment?”  
“Su...” Chloe popped it open and froze as an envelope packed with cash fell into her hands. “Holy shit”  
“Wow.” _Not even Jefferson promised this much money_  
“I've never seen... Wait...” Chloe's eyes widened in horror as her brain caught up with what Rachel had said a few moments ago, it had been reeling in the revelation that they were both at risk of imminent death if they didn't leave immediately. “What do you mean you banged _JEFFERSON_!? He's your fucking teacher isn't he, Rachel?!”  
There was silence

*****

“Heh. Good job, so it seems that you really are the rising star they claimed you were, from not even being in the top hundred to being the third-best globally... My money was well spent” a man sat down at his mahogany desk, surrounded by calming art scenes both paintings and photographs. “That'll be the last time either you or your father interfere...” The male slipped something that was only a couple inches in size into a chest pocket with a cruel smile


	6. Chapter 6

“Fuck it! You'd better tell me everything, Rachel” Chloe glared at the blonde who was driving the car she had led the blunette to, finally accepting that they were leaving and abandoning the old rustbucket truck at the motel  
“I intend to” Rachel replied without hesitation, most of her attention was on the road but she still prioritized the blunette sat next to her. “But once we're safe”  
“Safe from _what_?” Chloe had raised an eyebrow, her pissed off expression fading into one of confusion. She didn't necessarily disbelieve Rachel's words that they were in danger but... She didn't see what could be so dangerous  
“From June” Rachel replied, “yes, the girl who saved our lives, or at least mine” Rachel looked out of the window in the mirror to check behind them. “She’s _scary_, Chlo”  
“Pfft.” Chloe thought back to the girl she had met that was hanging off of Steph's arm. “June ain't at all scary. You're trippin' bad, Rach”

Rachel took the money-filled envelope from Chloe and pulled out plane tickets, ignoring the other young woman's comment about how she shouldn't be scared of June. “A connection flight to LAX then to parts unknown” she threw something in Chloe's lap, a passport. “Here's your passport”  
“A passport?” Chloe, who hadn't ever had one of those before, opened it to find a recent picture glaring back at her. “Charlotte Morgan?” she raised an eyebrow in shock  
“What's mine say?”  
“Ruby Rhod,” Chloe replied, attempting to keep a straight face  
SCREECH!!! “What the _fuck_?!” Rachel ignored the blaring horns from behind as she swerved off the road, her face beet red from either fury or humiliation, or both  
“This June seems to have a sense of humor. You are sexually promiscuous and a player, easy to piss off but, unlike him, you're actually hot” Chloe doubled over howling with laughter  
_Damnit. She's right, much to my shame_ “I don't want to be that person anymore, Chlo” 

*****

Meanwhile, back in Arcadia Bay, the End of the World party was just getting started. Nathan and his posse of Vortex Club elite were lounging around on their plush couches in the VIP section, a corner of the poolside cordoned off by curtains, most of whom were ingesting their substances of choice whether that was booze, bud or something slightly stronger. The music courtesy of DJ Doom was already booming, lights were flashing out over the poolside and a hazy layer of smoke hung in the air from the young adults who were smoking heavily, taking advantage of the lack of teachers and security. Victoria smiled at some story Nathan was telling, something about him 'capturing people in their true beauty’ while slowly inhaling, the blunt filling the air with its smoke and adding to the already hazy environment in the VIP section. “Hey, Victoria. You seen Rachel around?” one of the other members of the club asked.  
_Hayden_ the pixie blonde reminded herself before turning to gaze at him. The mere peasants of Blackwell Academy usually didn't dare to talk to her unless it was about herself or photography, asking after the whore of the club was an even bigger mistake and Hayden shifted nervously on his feet  
“I heard from my dad that we don't have to worry about that slut anymore, Vic” thankfully, Nathan decided to speak to Hayden, no doubt saving the stoner from the wrath of the Queen Bee  
“Shame, she was quite the party animal” Hayden smiled lazily at Nathan then turned away. “Guess all good things have to end”  
_Remind me why we have him in the Vortex?_ Even the Queen Bee's internal voice had become cold and unemotional  
“Vic, I know that look...” Nathan stated in concern  
She turned to face Nathan. “Why is that asshole even part of the club? It's not like he does much, aside from being high off his ass the whole time”  
“Vic, Hayden's cool” Nathan replied tiredly, he was more than slightly fed up of his social equal's attitude toward most of his friends. _‘Cept Eliot, that guy was a dick_. He was about to defend his friends more when there was a small disturbance out the front of the VIP section, a raised voice of the bouncer guy they'd asked to do door duty for a few hours in exchange for a hefty paycheck and maybe even admittance into the Vortex then a splash. _What the??_

Nathan turned toward the entrance and saw the curtain being pulled aside and a small girl who's features weren't really visible in the dim half-light of the VIP section stormed in, sidestepping dancing couples while the bouncer, a jock called Jonathan was swimming back toward the size of the pool, his clothes soaked and his hairstyle ruined. The newcomer dodged Dana and Zachary, Taylor and Courtney, Hayden and Sarah and several others, the blonde bimbo Juliet Watson having been ejected from the club for her inflammatory article regarding the Vortex Club being a cult so he wondered for a moment if the nameless girl was a friend of the evicted bitch. “Who the hell are you?!” The unstable male yelled at the newcomer  
“Nathan Joshua Prescott!!” The girl growled  
_Cute, she has her angry eyes on_. Nathan raised an eyebrow, standing so he towered over her. “What of it? Every bimbo and their dyke slut knows my name around her since I own this place!”  
“You're an asshole”  
Victoria turned to see the confrontation between her friend and a random young woman who had just walked in off the street. The stranger definitely didn't go to Blackwell Academy, Nathan would know and therefore she would know. The woman, no girl was comically all up in Nathan's face. _Whatever will these peasants think of next? You're gonna regret calling him an asshole though_ Victoria mused, pulling out her phone to record the stranger getting her ass handed to her, _oh well, the enjoyable atmosphere of the party is gone but at least I'll get a few thousand hits from this video_

Suddenly, the unexpected happened. Nathan had reached out to grab the girl, perhaps to throw a punch, perhaps to throw her in the pool though the pixie blonde was sure it would involve some kind of throwing when the girl reached up, gripped his wrist in what looked to be a very tight vice-like grip and knocked his arm away almost carelessly. “What the fuck?! You have no idea who the fuck you're messing with!”  
“Blah blah,” the woman mocked absently, pissing Nathan off even more if that was at all possible. The bouncer, Jonathan and another jock, Logan had moved behind the woman and grabbed her arms and shoulders to escort her out.  
“What's your name?” Nathan demanded  
“Pfft yea” was the girl’s only response, did Nathan really think she would tell him her name after she pissed him off? Sighing, the woman looked at the two burly jocks who had grabbed her arms and were awaiting orders like two mindless drones. “Sorry about this, this was so much easier in my head. Threaten, get some money, yanno?”  
Nathan bristled at that, “why would I give you money?!” He found himself wishing he had the gun his mentor had gotten him but he had left it in his room  
“I know what you did, Prescott” the stranger glared at him  
“Huh?” Nathan's brow furrowed

“Nathan, pixie blonde. I suggest you cover your eyes” the woman smirked then pulled her arm, trying to get it free from Logan’s grip much to the amusement of the two friends and the jocks.  
“What's wrong?” Nathan taunted, “too weak now? Jon, Logan, get rid of her” The guys nodded blankly like the mindless drones they were and turned to drag her out of the pool building  
“I just didn't want to hurt anyone tonight” she grumbled then rapidly lifted her foot so the back of her ankle went somewhere unpleasant for Jonathan. He crumpled and she yanked her arm away from him, “sorry dude.” She then spun, resulting in her elbow catching Logan on the jaw  
“Ow” the burly man grunted then squeezed the woman’s arm, pinning her in place and also causing her some discomfort  
_Oh no you don't._ The woman spun back around and punched him in the face from close range, one, two, three times in quick succession, sending him reeling back into the wall and releasing his grip on her arm. She had, by that point attracted some attention and a few cell phone lights lit up, taking pictures or trying to illuminate the young woman's face. What everyone saw shocked them immensely, her hair was a natural color save the very ends which were dyed a vibrant pink. Victoria and others had seen her around on occasion but they were all too inebriated to make the connection. The woman kicked at Jonathan who was just getting back onto his hands and knees, knocking him down with the single blow to the head. “I know what you did, Nathan, I know about the _photographs_. If you ever touch a girl I care about again, I'll spill your guts then slit your fucking throat, _am I clear_?” The normally mostly average plain Jane young woman had come out of her shell and was filled with deadly purpose, she had been horrified by what she had discovered and was pretty pissed about it, almost wanting Nathan to make an attempt at attacking her just so she could beat him senseless or at the very minimum humiliate him and the rest of those elitist pricks  
As predictable as the sun rising in the morning, Nathan roared in anger and charged. What happened next all happened too quickly for Victoria to make any sense of it but suddenly Zachary was groaning dazedly on the floor in front of the woman, a sharp metal object flew into the pool and Nathan was also in the pool, holding his nose with one hand in an attempt to stop the bleeding while treading water rapidly to keep his head above the water since his clothes dragged him down and blindly trying to grasp the edge of the pool, blinded because the water had gotten in his eyes. The curtain separating the Vortex Club VIPs from the commoners slowly fluttered down, exposing the VIP clientele to the rest of the party which had stopped and all eyes were turned in their direction in amazement at seeing Nathan's pool splashdown.

Victoria had had enough and slowly crept up to the party crasher who had, in the space of about five minutes, ruined the party and humiliated the entire Vortex elite. She lifted the glass she had in her hand, solo cups were for the plebians after all and brought it down on the back of the young woman’s head, or at least attempted to. The girl felt the initial blow and threw herself forward to lessen the impact, rolling out of the dive and disappearing behind the DJ's setup. “What the fuck was that about?” The pixie blonde shook her head, immediately shifted into Queen Bee mode and went into damage control to attempt to salvage what was left of the party. Logan, Jonathan and Zachary were unconscious or close to it, Taylor was reaching out to help Nathan to the edge of the pool but was rejected by the unstable teen and Courtney was walking backward and forward, stressed beyond belief, all while Victoria struggled to keep her composure in front of the whole school.

*****

Rachel pulled up outside the airport, she had finally cooled off from her earlier raging at June for her thinly veiled insult. _What the fuck was she thinking?! June doesn't know me at all! She such a bitch... I truly regret what I did to Chloe. Besides, how the fuck did she find out about that?!_ “Come on, Chlo, let's get past security”  
“I'm looking forward to the passport checker’s face when they see your name...”  
“Fuck you Chloe” _I guess I do deserve it, hope I'll be able to pass it off as an unfortunate coincidence..._  
“Hey, you owe me that one” Chloe replied with barely contained mirth  
“Fine, Chlo, I guess I do owe you a shitton after what I did. I'm sorry, by the way”  
“I'm sure you’re going to _make it up to me_,” Chloe asked her eyes twinkling with something else that became rather clear when her eyes drifted downward  
_You bet I am!!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you guys think so far? 
> 
> Sorry for the delay, I actually had this chapter mostly finished a couple days ago but forgot about it


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had the muse for this story so here's another chapter

“Showtime” the pink-tipped girl scowled, watching the mayhem she had already wrought upon the Vortex Club's End of the World party from behind the DJ's setup as she was willing to bide her time to choose the best moment to escape.

“Hey! You!” a voice exclaimed, one of Nathan's posse of rich bitches had been charging toward her. She had almost made it off campus before she was discovered and chased. “What the _fuck_ is your problem?”  
“Your rich prick friend” she replied calmly  
“And why am I a problem?” Nathan shouldered his way past his friend and glared down at the girl who had already humiliated him. “Did you really think that hiding behind the DJ’s kit would stop us?” The young woman had rolled behind the DJ kit then attempted to sneak out of the emergency exit, she had almost made it but reasoned she must've been spotted  
“No. But I know this will” The pink-tipped girl pulled out her wallet and held it out so he could see it. Instantly the red-faced male paled and backed away. “Thought so” She whispered triumphantly and raised her other hand, holding up three fingers  
“Nate? Nate, what's wrong?” Victoria moved up to Nathan's side but stopped when she saw what he was looking at. “Oh my god” she whispered quietly  
“Yea... So now, _Nate_” she used the man's nickname mockingly while she put her wallet away once again, “I’m guessing we have an understanding?”  
“Y-yes. Definitely” he nodded quickly and the young woman's gaze fell on Victoria who gulped and nodded  
“Y-you're a...”  
“A member? Duhhhh. Try _third_. Globally” Victoria moved back subconsciously without really comprehending what she was doing, she was _terrified_ and hadn't been anywhere near that scared in her entire life. “Now I have your full and undivided attention, let me make this quite plain. You will stop doing what you're doing, both of you. Nate, you will destroy those photographs and tell me who's behind them since I know you're not smart enough to do it by yourself” the blonde young man who, looking as deflated, as timid as he did merely nodded without a hint of his usual aggression, much up the shock of the jock who wasn’t aware anything could make the unstable teen so timid. “And pixie blonde, you'll stop being a bitch to everyone” Victoria nodded meekly, cowed by the unassuming figure before her. “Else I really will spill your fucking guts” With that final statement she stepped forward toward the rich King and Queen of Blackwell who both leaped away as if burned. “And if you tell anyone who I am, my mother will deal with you”

“Your _mother_?” Another voice scoffed, one of Victoria’s lackeys had joined them but from the way Victoria's eyes widened in shock, she wasn't the one who encouraged the lackey to act that way  
“Courtney Wagner, right?” the pink-tipped girl stated in a monotone voice  
“H-how did you know that?” the black-haired girl stuttered, slightly perturbed but the pink-haired girl had quickly decided she wasn’t perturbed enough  
“You wouldn't believe me if I told you,” she replied coldly, “but Icky Vicky here will probably tell you as soon as you're all safe”  
“Anyway, your mother? You need someone to hold your hand, _little girl_?” Courtney mocked the young woman's height and how she looked younger than she was  
“No. Not when this hand is capable of killing with just two fingers” she lifted her hand and both Nathan and Victoria backed off sharpish, their faces losing even more of their color as if the pink-tipped's words were truthful. Courtney looked around at both the King and Queen of the school, confused as to why both of them had backed off when neither had ever backed off before, she didn't really believe the woman in front of her was actually capable of killing in cold blood. “You think I'm joking?” the aggressive young woman challenged angrily but still maintaining an air of detached indifference  
Victoria pulled Courtney back from the stranger, shaking her head in warning. “She'll kill us all without hesitation, Court”  
“Victoria Maribeth Chase is correct, Courtney Wagner. I would kill you in a heartbeat”  
Courtney backed away in fear, the coldness of the young woman's voice and eyes were enough to terrify the woman. She hadn't experienced coldness like that, not even in Sean Prescott who was well known as being a heartless bastard. “What the fuck?”

Her piece said, the pink-tipped stranger backed off and started walking away without bothering to reply to the dark-haired girl. Cowed, none of the students made any effort to stop her from leaving. “What the fuck was that about?” Courtney looked between Nathan and Victoria while the jock gazed after their assailant warily  
“I haven't a fucking clue, Court” the pixie blonde turned to the King of Blackwell  
“Whatthefuckever” Nathan hadn't ever been seen so terrified in his life. Deep down he knew he should have sold out his mentor, he wouldn't have faced any consequences for doing so, unlike the sick man who had been mentoring him

“Hey! There's Mr. Madsen!” The jock who had run after the intruder pointed at him, he had just come on duty after the party concluded. Nathan's father, Sean had paid the principal to take the security off duty that night to prevent them from interfering with the party. Victoria shook her head and Nathan reached out to grab his arm to stop him but was too slow, the jock was far fitter than Nathan and Victoria was wearing heels. “Mr. Madsen!! Mr. Madsen!!”  
“Yea, soldier?!”  
“We were attacked at the party!!”  
_Shit, we're so dead_

*****

“Well, time to get off this plane. We have a few hours before we have to get our next flight” Rachel stood up and grabbed her duffel bag from the overhead storage. The duffel bags had been waiting for them in a locker at Portland’s international airport and were both filled with clothes of different sizes. The two girls had made good time to the airport in Portland and had enough time before their flight to grab a small tattoo each to commemorate their escape from Arcadia Bay. They had hurried through security and made it to the terminal with time to spare which both girls took full advantage of, both changed into a new outfit from the clothes left for them and grabbed some food, a simple sandwich since neither girl felt able to face much more than that with the nauseating side effects of the drugs still bothering them. A couple hours later they landed at LAX to get their next flight which wasn't due to leave for twelve hours. Rachel made her way off the plane, the thespian’s excitement plain to see. She had been dreaming of going to LA for years and she was finally there, in LA, with Chloe. Despite being on the run from a dangerous person who wanted her dead, Rachel insisted that they see the sights before leaving to go wherever they were going. Rachel hurried into the arrivals area of the terminal, dragging Chloe along behind her, passing security on their false passports without too much bother beyond the inevitable raised eyebrow at Rachel's fake name. “Come on, Charlotte!” The thespian was in her element, all those productions she had taken part in giving her a far more natural attitude toward using Chloe's false name than Chloe had toward using hers  
“Okay, okay, I'm coming!”  
“Come on!!” The blonde was so excited to see LA that she was constantly dragging the poor blunette. “We can go to the pier!” Both girls were planning to stay awake the whole twelve hours they had in LA and sleep on their flight but Chloe was already lagging behind the excitable thespian who was listing everything they could do in LA, from a sedate stroll down the Santa Monica pier to spending a few hours on the beach to an exciting couple hours in the thrumming nightlife of the clubs.

“Okay, okay, Rach! Rach, stop!” Chloe tugged more firmly on Rachel's arm to stop her. “Breathe with me, Rach” Chloe slowly breathed in, Rachel copying her. It had been something they had been doing since Rachel had discovered her father's betrayal and his subsequent crimes in covering up the fact that Rachel's biological mother wasn't the person she thought it was when Rachel had developed anxiety and panic issues. “Calmer?” Chloe whispered to the thespian who nodded and rolled her eyes playfully.  
“You know what?” Rachel began, intertwining her fingers with Chloe's as she stood in the center of the foyer.  
“What, Rach?” Chloe turned to look at Rachel who was gazing down at Chloe's sleeve tattoo and unaware that Chloe had looked at her  
“I'm grateful to June. She forced us back together and now I have you” Chloe smiled widely at Rachel's words, she had been thinking that, of course, but she didn't know if the blonde shared her opinion  
“And I have you”  
Chloe's words were enough to get Rachel to realize that Chloe was looking at her so she raised her eyes and smiled. “You do, Chlo. I'm so so sorry”  
“Let’s not talk about that now, let's go enjoy our time in LA for now”  
“Hella yea!” Rachel squeezed Chloe's hand and pulled her into a hug. Rachel chuckled and breathed in the scent of her best friend and girlfriend. _We did it, we’re free from that shithole we used to live in. It took a lot from me, but it took even more from Chloe_

“How much money do we have, Rach?” Chloe inquired as they walked out hand in hand, heading for a place to rent a car  
“Uh, a few thousand at least? I guess June expected us to get a hotel” Rachel shrugged then grinned. “I'll buy you something nice”  
“Rach...” the differentiation between the Amber family and the Price family had been a sticking point for as long as the girls had known each other, Rachel loved buying things for Chloe, usually her weed but she had secretly forked out the deposit and half upfront for Chloe's intricate and expansive sleeve tattoo. Once Chloe had realized what had happened, it had caused their first real fight, Rachel had been born into money while Chloe’s family was hovering on the edge of poverty and the 'Price Pride' as Rachel called it caused a number of small fights even before their big blowout over the tattoo, seemed to be hereditary in nature since Joyce was also afflicted by the condition which prevented her from accepting any kind of monetary aid that the Ambers had attempted to provide throughout their years of friendship. At first, James Amber had disliked Chloe, the blonde delinquent had inserted herself into family business, promptly fucking up his decade-long mission to keep his daughter safe from Sera Gearhardt, Rachel's birth mother and exposing him as the liar he was. Eventually, James Amber had come to accept that the blunette was in Rachel's life to stay, hammered home by Rachel getting herself a dragon tattoo on her calf that the delinquent had designed and gone so far as dyeing a strand of her blonde hair orange. Eventually, James Amber grew to like the blunette, she was loyal, truthful, kind, caring and exactly the sort of person his wildfire-esque daughter needed to temper her more impulsive behavior  
“No, Chlo. I owe you big time. You came back for me” Rachel grumbled  
“Of course I did, Rach. We have to stick together” Chloe's words were a promise, a vow, an oath. They had come way too far together to give up on one another now  
“And it's because of you that I'm still alive” Rachel whispered to the blunette whose eyes had widened in shock

*****

David Madsen may have been an asshole with stalker problems but both Victoria and Nathan had to admit that he worked fast. Once Adrian, one of Nathan's 'friends’ and the jock who had run after the pink-tipped girl had explained that they had been attacked at the party, that two students had been assaulted and another had received death threats, David escorted them all back to the gym building which has since been abandoned. With its high windows and two entrances that could be locked, the swimming pool made the perfect place to bunker down until the cops arrived despite both Nathan and Victoria attempting to stop David. “Shit” Nathan mumbled, he and Victoria had shared a glance but otherwise remained unresponsive to David’s questioning. Neither Adrian nor Courtney had seen whatever it was their assailant had shown Nathan and Victoria so with their continued silence, the cops couldn't do much beyond searching the entire town for this mysterious woman. Someone, Victoria and Nathan weren't told who but they could probably guess, had been pulled aside by the cops to answer a few questions but the person they were seeking wasn't going to be arrested simply because they didn't match up to the physical description the jock and lackey had given and they had a very convincing alibi, the person they were seeking was away in Portland, searching for a birthday gift for their significant other. It was only much later when Nathan, Victoria, Courtney and Adrian were released from the pool building that things started to spiral. First, David’s radio buzzed then a cold voice, colder still than their assailant’s spoke three words through the radio, ‘You were warned' followed quickly by a sharp crack them finally an ear-splitting shriek

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure how I feel about this one... Am I rushing things? Is it an (mysterious but) engaging story?


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Going for a few other viewpoints for this chapter, not the usual June or Rachel/Chloe PoVs

The woman watching over the courtyard of Blackwell Academy sighed. Just another day acting as the rising star's wing woman, not that it bothered her too much since it gave her some time alone away from her annoying sibling who was also her number one rival and also gave her a chance to watch the younger rising star become more proficient. A small smirk grew on her face as she heard the amusement burble out of the students in the building opposite her, she had been on the roof of the main academy building for a couple hours, watching, waiting and acting as spotter for the young woman she had known for several years, ever since a fateful day had thrown the two into each others’ lives. Imagining what was going on was a decent way for the woman to pass the time and since she had scoped the building out beforehand she knew it was a pool building so she imagined the rising star headbutting the young male she was there to extort and knocking him back into the pool as the fool stumbled while undoubtedly high, trying to save himself from the humiliating pool splashdown. She knew the target was the rich 'King' of the school, Nathan Prescott and that to such a person image was everything so had advised the rising star, _June_ she reminded herself, to aim for his pride. Sure enough, she had heard a loud splash and screamed expletives mixed in amongst the laughter, the music had also ground to a halt much to the woman's relief. _Good job, now just get out of there_. The woman had needed to patch up the younger woman's injuries a number of times, an experience she didn't exactly want to repeat and the exact reason she was led there on the roof of a school’s educational building since the woman had almost forty years experience doing what the younger woman had been learning for a mere three. “Come on, come on” she murmured, reaching out to take the brand new Mk 14 battle rifle in her hand and pointed it down at the ground, the gun had been pointed harmlessly at the sky while the woman watched and waited but since things would soon be happening she wanted to be ready for whatever happened next. The target was supposedly mentally unstable but had a relatively rich father who would most likely know of the existence of people like them, hopefully, that would be enough to stop the young man from acting too crazily but she wasn't willing to take that chance.

The woman tensed as the woman with pink-tipped hair escaped through the emergency exit that would have been behind the DJ if her guesses were correct. She and the rising star had broken into the pool building the night before the party to have a little nose around and had taken notice of the curtains that separated off a portion of the poolside, along with all the alcoholic beverages on the opposite side of the pool. Both women were somewhat impressed, whoever was funding the party was wealthy yes, but still not _wealthy_ like they were, their line of work paid extraordinarily well, especially as they were the best of the best. The pink-tipped young woman smiled at the roof and waved awkwardly eliciting a small chuckle from the older woman, her amusement was short-lived however as an angry-looking jock type stormed out of the pool building in pursuit of the woman and her hand tensed involuntarily on the butt of the rifle, she itched to shoot the man there and then before he became a threat to the younger woman but they had discussed it beforehand, she wouldn't reveal herself unless they had no other choice. Things would only get more annoying for the elder woman since the target stormed out of the pool building with a stuffy preppy bitch following behind him cautiously. She couldn’t hear what was being said between the woman and the target while they talked, only that the young man took a hasty step back away from the woman. _That's the son of Prescott?_ She mused, even from that distance she could see how unstable the man was and despite what he was, she truly was in two minds about whether she wanted to put three bullets in him. She imagined, no was pretty certain that June had just shown the Prescott boy her ID since the boy looked ready to faint as did the preppy bitch. Suddenly, the elder woman lost sight in what was going on in front of her as she had found herself chucked back into a memory at the sight of the jock moving forward to confront the pink-haired woman and once again found herself forcibly staying her finger before it could wrap around the trigger and squeeze, though she didn’t have to act since the jock had been pulled back by both the preppy bitch and Prescott boy

*****

Four years previously, 09 December 2009

“Em, how much longer are you gonna hide in that car? I know it's cold but come on, girl... Our hotel is just across the street” a black-haired woman complained  
“It’s fucking freezing” Em, the woman from the roof replied, her own long black hair streaming down her back and over her shoulders. She looked similar if a little younger than she had been on the roof and was rubbing her hands together to attempt to get what warmth she could  
An almost identical woman stood beside her door, tapping annoyingly on the glass in an attempt to cajole Em out of the car. “Emily, get the fuck out of that car, now!” she grumbled  
“Fuck off, Emma” Emily growled but undid her seatbelt and hesitatingly opened the car door, shivering at the sudden blast of cold air that embraced her  
“You’re supposed to be the very best at what we do but here you are cowering away in a warm car. Toughen up!” Emma scoffed  
“And you're second... Always will be” Emily taunted  
“Fuck off, or I'll gut you like a fish” _While you're still conscious_ Emma replied vengefully  
“Not if I shoot you in the head first!” The two women were always arguing about who was the superior of the two, it was a friendly competition they had going on for as long as they could remember and it also served to push them to achieve their next goal, overtaking the other on the global rankings officially published by the association they were part of. As the global first and global second, both women were on the leadership council along with the chair, an elected official, the vice-chair who was the founder of their organization, the global third, a treasurer and a secretary. They had both been the global first and global second since the organization they simply called _The Guild_ was founded and switched places on the rankings so frequently that they were simply referred to as the 'top two’ instead of by their actual ranking.

The identical twins had just attended the monthly council meeting that was a requirement for them to attend, had they been able to skip it they would have, neither Emily nor Emma liked the managerial aspect of their position but they had gotten used to it after almost three decades of fulfilling their roles and were heading back to their hotel since it was a visit of only a few days they didn't see the point in purchasing a house there. A sudden noise attracted Emily's attention, it came from a nearby alley and Emily tensed, reached down to pick up a small stone then pointed at the alley. _What was that?_  
Emma, who hadn't heard the noise nodded quickly, adjusting her direction of walking to come alongside Emily. “What's up, Em?” she whispered  
“Heard a noise”

Emily led the way down the alleyway toward where the noise had come from and held up her hand, there wasn't anything there but Emily felt uneasy. She looked around some then eventually peeked over the top of a dumpster. _Oh my god!!_ “Holy shit!”  
“What?”  
Emily pointed down, hidden behind the dumpster was a young teen in filthy and badly damaged clothes. “Holy shit is right”  
“Yup”  
“Hey, kiddo, you okay?” Emma rolled her eyes at Emily's question, “yea... Stupid question. Have you been down there long?” the teen shook her head but otherwise remained silent.  
“Kid? Are you hungry?” Emma asked in a rare show of compassion and the child nodded. “Here,” Emma knelt and placed the pizza box they had gotten for themselves down next to the girl. “What are you doing out here?”  
“...” The girl opened her mouth then shook her head, she couldn't tell two complete strangers what had happened  
“Were you hurt?” Emily asked and the child nodded, nodding her head no more than an inch, she was terrified. Both women shared a glance then looked back at the child  
“I... Ran away”  
“She speaks” Emma commented dryly to be lightly punched by Emily  
“Emma, stop it”  
“I ran away from the foster home”  
“Why?”  
The girl merely looked down

*****

Emily felt a very familiar rush of rage as she remembered the young girl’s heartbreaking eventual confession about what had happened to her, why she had run away from her foster home. Emily and Emma had immediately declared that whoever hurt the girl would be dead by the morning, though that had been unnecessary as it turned out though it took them some time to draw the teen out of her shell for long enough for her to tell them. Once again, she barely controlled the urge to shoot one of the teens stood a short distance from where she was hidden, her memories of what had happened to the girl that she and her sister had adopted always made her blood boil. Emily snapped back into reality just in time to watch a security guard hurriedly escort the four students back to the pool building, a gun in his hand. “Hm, what do we have here?” she asked softly, hearing screeching tires from just down the road. _That's Emma taking June to safety_. Ten minutes later several police cars screeched up the road and parked haphazardly out the front of the Academy. _Oh shit. This. Is. Brilliant!!_ Emily couldn't help it, she was ecstatic about the arrival of the police which meant that the students had ignored the dire warning and she might just get an opportunity for her own unique brand of revenge after all

Emily had to wait a good few hours before the security guard, some random vet by the name of David Madsen, escorted the Prescott boy, the preppy bitch, the jock and the lackey out of the pool building. A small smile crossed her face as she aimed and felt the gun innards moving smoothly to chamber a round, she always did appreciate a well looked after gun. Her finger drifted automatically into position on the trigger, applying just enough pressure to test the mechanism by virtue of muscle memory. Emily didn't tend to use the safety but must have shot many thousands of rounds from various guns so everything was automatic, where she placed her hands, how she positioned the gun on the ground, how she rested the gun against her shoulder and how she automatically brought the gun to bear on the target she wanted to shoot. Emily spoke three words into a radio she had switched on and was using to jam the communications between the security guards, breathed out one last time and squeezed the trigger once. She felt the recoil hitting her shoulder, a reassuring thud against her shoulder which always made her smile. She smelled the acrid fumes of the gunpowder and heard the sharp crack that signified the bullet beginning its journey of about a hundred feet toward the target

*****

David had stayed near the four students the entire time they had been in the pool building, he had remained close even when the cops were talking to the four of them though it surprised him how quiet the King and Queen were being, almost as if something had terrified them both into such an absolute silence. He had imagined that both Prescott and Chase would be kicking up a shitstorm if they were threatened on campus but he had been totally wrong, so much so that it concerned him while he wondered what exactly had happened to them both. Sure, the jock and the lackey couldn't seem to shut up about what had happened but the two people whose wealth outstripped anyone else in the Bay remained stony-faced, impassive and silent. Eventually, he was given the all-clear, there was nobody who even remotely matched the description they had given anywhere in the Bay. Even though they could be hiding in one of the many houses, the girl with pink-tipped hair had apparently had a girlfriend called Steph Gingrich who was a student and that student had vehemently argued that her girlfriend was in Portland. Steph had pulled out her cell phone to prove it and managed to procure both the girl’s phone’s GPS location and several selfies of the young woman in question in short order which left the police with no leads to act on so they'd been forced to drop the case. He had just led the four kids to the stairway leading off-campus when he heard an unfamiliar voice echo out of his own radio which only members of the security team used then an unmistakable sound, the crack of a rifle. “DOWN!!” he bellowed but it was too late. The jock, Adrian was led on his side and screaming in pain while blood oozed from his leg. David couldn't really see through the blood but it looked to be a clean through and through shot, the boy had been shot in the leg from a high powered rifle and was immensely lucky that it hadn’t hit anything vital on its way through, either that or it was the skill of the shooter. Another crack sounded across the courtyard seconds later and the Prescott boy fell to his knees, cradling his right hand which was suddenly misshapen and covered in red, The boy was too shocked even to scream. David bellowed for help and for someone to call an ambulance but neither the jock’s nor Nathan's injuries were life-threatening and once in the relative safety of the ambulance, David couldn't help but admire the marksmanship involved in those tricky shots. Nathan's arms had been crossed over his chest with his hands under his arms in an attempt to protect himself from a bullet so whoever shot him had to avoid all his internal organs while still hitting a target that was about an inch wide. Nathan's right index finger, the one he used to take his photographs the security guard noted, had been obliterated but that was pretty much the limit of the damage, the bullet had passed through the body without damaging any vital organ

*****

The pink-tipped woman sighed as her butt landed in the car seat. “Hey, you” the woman in the driver's side spoke in a gentle and caring tone and then revved the engine and screeched away from Blackwell  
“Hey, yourself” June replied

A few hours later was a sudden rapport of a rifle, the younger of the two women could tell what gun it was just from its sound and therefore she knew that it was Emily’s weapon that had been fired instead of the smaller handguns that David the Security Douche carried around with him. She and Emma had been aimlessly driving around the bay so to keep the police’s interest in them to a minimum while they waited to pick up the missing family member. “Did you get that hair dye?” June asked as calmly as if they'd just gone to the store instead of threatening someone  
“Sure sweetie, it's in the back. You know you could just let your hair grow out again instead of dyeing it?” Emma replied using their nickname for their adopted daughter  
“Nah. Blonde with Pink tips is nice but I prefer brunette”  
“Hah, you're sounding more and more like Emily the older you get” Emma commented dryly, she liked her identical twin well enough now that they were a lot older and therefore not pissing each other off at every opportunity  
“Is that such a bad thing?” the younger replied  
“No, since you'll soon pass us both and take your rightful place at the top of the global rankings. You alone can outmatch both of us _at the same time_” Emma smiled at the younger girl she and her sister had adopted four years previously when the teen had been going through the toughest time in her life  
“I don't think I can do that, you have over three decades more experience than I do”  
“Hmph. You should believe in yourself a bit more, Em and I certainly do” While Emma had been somewhat cold toward the young teen in the beginning, she had quickly warmed up to her after her traumatic experiences in her foster home  
“If you say so”  
“Neither of us has had to patch you up the past few times have we?”  
“No, but that's only because you've both been watching me like a hawk”  
“Well duh... You might not be a blood relative to us but in all the ways that matter, you are our daughter” Emma smiled at her then swerved the car off onto the grass, threw the door open and a tall dark-haired woman jumped into the car, landing stretched out over the back seats with a grin  
“Clean getaway” she confirmed with a small laugh  
“As always” the pink-tipped young woman smirked, the two women she called her parents were actually more like her guardians and hadn't ever failed. It was a daunting task to attempt to keep up with them both but she had learned never to quit. “Em, Emma, thank you”  
“You don't have to thank us, it's a moral obligation.”  
“Did you find out who was responsible for the photograph?”  
“Yes. His name is Mark Jefferson, he has been training Prescott to follow in his footsteps”  
“_The_ Mark Jefferson?! The photographer?! He's...”  
“He's a bastard” Emily growled, she hated him despite never having met him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This'll be my last post before NaNoWriMo, a target of 50000 words? Shit.  
No idea if I'll actually hit that target but expect to see updates for Devastation, Saint Annabeth's, Out of Time and others!! 
> 
> Please tell me what you think of this story so far, motivate me to write!!


	9. Chapter 9

“Are you ready for this, Chlo?”  
“We have to leave the country and go somewhere new? Hella yea, I'm ready!” Chloe and Rachel had returned to LAX and were following the instructions on the paperwork that they had found in their car. “Locker number two one nine...” She reached the locker, inserted the key and unlocked it, finding another envelope with two debit cards in two new names, two passports and two plane tickets along with some written notes. “Take the new passports and leave the old ones in the locker. Hm. Let's see”  
“Cool! My name is Bethany Melina Renata Byrne, married” Chloe whisper-exclaimed, being mindful of the fact that they were in a public place  
“Elizabeth Alondra Renata Byrne, married. According to this, we added our second middle names upon our marriage. Renata means 'reborn'.”  
“Well shit, never heard of those middle name options before” Chloe mumbled, quickly tossing both the used, dirty passports into the locker as instructed. “Ready, Eliza?” She asked, preparing herself for the long flight but still mulling over a question that her and Rachel's name brought up. _Byrne... Byrne... Why is that familiar?_  
“Ready, Beth” Rachel nodded and led her blunette best friend and girlfriend toward their plane.

*****

The man slipped his key into the lock on his front door, easing it open and cautiously glancing around, the humiliation his apprentice had received at the hands of a girl right before his finger was reduced to a bloody stump by some woman left him on edge. Nathan hadn't been able to talk much and certainly hadn't been able to use his phone after someone decimated his finger, and therefore the man wouldn't have had any idea about what had happened if it hadn’t been for Nathan's father texting to explain that Nathan was in hospital and strangely enough the other man had gone on a rather lengthy radio silence almost immediately after that first text, ignoring both the man’s texts and calls. “Ahhhhh” he sighed, slumping down on his couch with a sigh and absently flicking on his TV with one hand, a beer in the other.  
“_... Breaking news, the body of the renowned photographer and professor at Blackwell Academy Mark Jefferson has been recovered in what's believed to be a murder-suicide_”  
“What... The fuck?” he whispered, switching to another random channel  
“_Jefferson's body was the second to be found tonight after the businessman Sean Prescott’s body was discovered earlier today..._”  
The man flicked over channels again, tuning in to a digital radio station, _fucking hell_  
“_Been shot in the head from point-blank range. Jefferson is believed to have been the instigator of the murder of Sean Prescott, possibly to take possession of the man's wealth as he was named as a guardian of said wealth until Prescott's son Na.._.” Click. Jefferson switched the TV off with the remote then moved toward the TV to inspect it

“That’ll be on the news within a half-hour” a feminine voice, calm but with a terrifying edge of ice-cold fury to it spoke to Jefferson from the doorway into his kitchen  
“What the fuck?!” Jefferson spun around and dropped not only his remote but the beer he had been nursing since before he had even arrived at his house. “You BITCH!” he yelled, forgetting for a moment that he wasn’t in his Dark Room and whoever stood over by his door wasn’t stumbling around drunkenly after being dosed. Consequently, the woman appeared wholly unimpressed by the middle-aged hipster stood before her even after he roared at her

*****

“Wow, this place is nice!!” Chloe gazed at the first-class seats that their mysterious benefactor, June, had purchased for the pair  
“You should've told me you'd never ridden first class, Chl... Beth” Rachel replied, sighing out sadly that her girlfriend’s family's lack of money had stolen all those opportunities from her, especially since it was something they never wanted to happen and had no say over cruel fate.  
“Well, I've never even left the bay before a few days ago...” Chloe mumbled, blushing from her embarrassment at admitting to that  
“Oh, I'm so sorry. I would’ve taken you somewhere had you told me, even if it was to Portland. Anyways, where are we going?” Rachel replied soothingly, she didn't feel that Chloe's lack of wealth meant anything  
“... Sydney”  
“Wow... We're going to Australia, really?”  
“Yup”  
Rachel yawned, stretched like a cat and curled up on her first-class seat just as the plane started to taxi out to the runway. “Cuddle me when we're airborne?” she asked, stifling another yawn  
“Mmm” Chloe hummed, rubbing her thumb across the back of her girl’s hand as she slowly fell asleep under her girlfriend’s careful and loving ministrations

*****

“Let me out of here!” A male howled in outrage, struggling against the restraints they had put on him to keep him from hurting himself. “My father is gonna sue y'all into working for him for the rest of your great grandchildren’s lives, you know that, right!?” The nursing staff all felt sympathy at the boy’s clearly psychotic ramblings, for a while but they’d had to put up with him for the whole night and he was disturbing other patients.  
“Let’s sedate the poor fucker” one of the nurses suggested but was interrupted by the arrival of a dark-haired and tall woman  
“Excuse me, I'm looking for Nathan Prescott? I'm detective Emily James” she pulled out an ID and flashed it  
“Right this way, detective” the nurse led the way into Nathan's room and left, not noticing the woman's smirk and the fury hidden behind the woman's gentle demeanor

“Hi, my name is Emily and I'm here on behalf of my daughter...” Nathan's eyebrows went from being raised in confusion to furrowed in thought then raised in pure shock. “There ya go” the somewhat familiar voice spoke, chilling the boy to the bone. He had only ever heard three words from the woman stood by his bedside but they were enough for him to recognize _her_ voice.  
“Y-you” he stuttered, wondering what the woman was exactly. The woman with the pink-tipped hair who had attacked him at Blackwell had made vague references to her mothers and that they would more than happily kill him for their daughter but... Did that make them assassins on par with the mysterious pink-tipped woman who was supposedly working in the general hospital or were they just overprotective parents?  
“How’s the finger Nathan Joshua Prescott?” the woman asked, pulling out her wallet and showing the boy another ID card. All Nathan could do in reply was open and close his mouth in shock

*****

“Oh thank god, they’re okay” a young woman slumped in relief before turning back to her beanie-wearing girlfriend. “They're okay, sweetie. Chloe just updated her Facebook saying they're fine”  
“What the hell were they playing at, going quiet for days then just upping and vanishing again?” the beanie-wearing girl asked quietly  
“I have no idea, Steph” a young woman with pink-tipped hair replied just as quietly, something strange was going on and neither of them wanted to draw attention to that, certainly not after her girlfriend has been pulled aside to answer questions about her girlfriend possibly being a murderer

*****

“Hey, Markus John Jefferson. My name is Emma and I'm here because my daughter is a teenage girl, eighteen years old in fact and... Well I didn't feel comfortable letting her come here to deal with you herself”  
“What's that supposed to mean?” Jefferson snapped, “what is the meaning of all this? You broke into _my_ house, played some _bullshit_ about me being involved in a murder-suicide that never happened and made outlandish claims that I’d want to date your eighteen-year-old daughter”  
“Not date. Date rape, maybe” the woman's tone was cold, calculating and above all showed hints of just what she wanted to do, what she wouldn't hesitate to do if he pissed her off too much. Jefferson, as observant as any other photographer knew he had to watch what he said because he knew that woman wouldn’t hesitate to gut him and make sure he died a slow, agonizing death  
“You're ridiculous, I'm a teacher at a high school”  
“Yes, and you have an expensive bunker set up to be your own private photo studio, don't you? You also have a red binder with my daughter's name on it, don't you?”  
“What the _fuck_?” Jefferson's hand moved slowly toward the expensive-looking solid wood coffee table, inching toward the gun concealed there

“Your big mistake wasn’t the torture dungeon you dreamed up, that was rather smart. Your mistake was connecting it to the internet. I know, I know. You need the internet to talk to and send your sicko photographs out to your clients like Mr. Ashton Adrianson, mayor of Arcadia Bay or Zachariah Kirk, the governor of Oregon” she grinned at Jefferson's widening eyes. “Oh yes, I know _everything_. Your mistake was thinking that even the dark web was yours when in fact it is _mine_. That aside, my guild has very strict rules regarding when someone outside of contract can be hurt or killed, it's called the morality clause. Fortunately, raping young women, both figuratively and literally are both reasonable cause.”  
“But... But those videos are encrypted...” Jefferson stuttered, even he recognized that the game was up  
“Oh, I forgive you for your naivete in all things internet, Jefferson but you're not an IT whiz, hell I expect not even those most distinguished MIT professors know what I'm about to tell you” she lowered her head toward him as if to whisper in his ear. “My sister” she began when suddenly a burning, agonizing sensation erupted from his side, Emma's blade burying deep into the man's flesh while she whispered the last of her little fact. “My sister is the reason you failed to keep your secrets.” Moving away from the dying pedophile she raised her voice back up to its normal volume. “You'll be dead in... About ten hours, not enough time to reveal that little secret to anyone else since you live alone” she whispered, leaving him slumped where he had fallen onto the hard marble floor of his house only a few feet from his intended target; the coffee table. He didn't know it but she had stabbed him in such a way that it couldn't easily be fixed and since he did live alone nobody would hear his yelling, not even if he used the gun to try to get attention

*****

June stood in the bathroom of the hotel she had been staying in for the past few hours, a towel wrapped around her recently redyed hair to dry it since the young woman had just gotten out of the shower. “That's better” she sighed, “only a few more hours and I can see my parents again” the young woman's mind wandered to the two individuals who had saved her in every sense of the word, saved her life when she was cold, aching, bleeding and had nowhere to go. Saved her sanity after she had been subjected to things, to cruelty that nobody should have had to ensure by someone they should have been able to trust. Saved her soul when she thought she was all alone in the world. She did love them both. “I miss you guys” she whispered, knowing that she couldn't call either of them at that time since she knew just how busy they'd both be at that time, busy doing the tasks they had to do. Looking out of the gigantic window overlooking some of the most stunning Ocean views and buildings anywhere in the world, the young woman found herself thinking of the easier days, back when she was younger.

*****

Three years previously, 16 September 2010  
“Em??” a smallish young teen stood by the kitchen island, fiddling with her fingers and her eyes set firmly on a spot on the ground, nervously avoiding touching anything since everything looked so expensive to her  
“Yea, sweetie?” Emily looked up from the meal she was cooking, gestured to Emma who took over without missing a beat and knelt in front of the girl, a younger June. She hadn't seen the youngest member of their little family act that way in some time, it only showed just how nervous the girl was  
“You told me what you and Emma are...” The tween whispered, her voice almost indistinguishable from the sizzling meat, “I wanna join you”  
Emily was taken aback for several seconds, she had explained what she and Emma did for a living to the young teen only the night before, that she and Emma were contract killers, assassins and that while it certainly paid exceedingly well since both Emma and Emily had more money than they knew what to do with, they didn't really want the tween following in their footsteps, certainly not after how skittish the girl had been at first and had only gone with the two women because she knew she would've died if she hadn't. Once they arrived at their primary home in the Pacific Southwest, both women had quickly established ground rules that were more for the girl’s benefit than their own. Since they lived in what was essentially one building converted into two houses they had promptly given one house to the girl to ensure she had her own space where she could move around knowing she was completely safe and that nobody could sneak up on her and hurt her, essential after what had happened to her. Despite the safety offered by her own space, Emily often awoke to find the tween led on her bed and curled up into the smallest ball possible with tears streaming down her face and the woman would always pull the girl into a warm hug then wrap her up in the spare blankets she had started keeping in her room. Emma slept next door to Emily after she moved out of her house to make room for the girl so she often heard her identical twin comforting the girl. Contrary to popular belief among her peers, Emma wasn't completely heartless and had even grown to like the teen they had taken in having been the one to suggest adoption.

“I'll have to talk to Emma about it” Emily warned, her usual easy-going attitude had vanished as soon as the girl had asked if she could follow in their footsteps  
“I-I'm sorry” she mumbled, looking away sadly. “You don't have to”  
“Hey, sweetie” Emily reached out, pulling the younger girl’s chin up and back toward her. “Is okay” she pulled the girl into a hug. “I'll talk to Emma, but are you sure there's nothing else you'd rather do with your life? Becoming an assassin isn't an easy path”  
“I wanna do it, momma” Emily teared up, neither adult pushed the teen to call them anything other than their names so to hear her do it of her own volition it made the assassin unbelievably happy

*****

She smiled wistfully as she remembered how protective those two had been, how, despite their own roles in life, they had only wanted what was best for her and while her own parents had been loving, they had been smothering and controlling to the point where she was anxious to go outside. Emily and Emma were so different to what she had experienced up to that point, they were the definition of loving parents but a lot less strict on her, they had showed her it was possible to be loving yet not smother someone with stringent rules and overbearing control. “Those were the days...” she breathed then pulled out a very old and tattered photograph from her pocket, a photograph of herself as a child with another child, smiled at it and put it under the pillow. “Only another thirteen hours” she reminded herself

With that, the young woman removed her plastic 3D printed gun from the holster on her hip and slipped it under her pillow along with her phone and the old photograph. She soon undressed and slipped into the bed of the best hotel suite she had ever been in, she had thirteen hours before her flight home and was determined to sleep for at least a few of those. The cost of the hotel suite, despite being in excess of thirty grand for two nights was a mere drop in the ocean to her, she frequently spent that much on her hobby anyway and the equipment she used for her missions routinely added up to an equally sizable cost as well. Her parents, on the other hand, had enough exotic cars to use a different one each day of the week

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suck at coming up with names...
> 
> I love reading what you guys think of my fics so please leave comments!!


	10. Chapter 10

“Come on! We have the entirety of a new country to explore!” A blonde young woman with a blue feather earring was pulling another young woman along, the second woman had short blue hair and a huge grin that spread from ear to ear. The reason for their excitement and jubilance was simple, they had finally escaped the monotony of their previous lives, a monotony that one felt was suffocating and that it was slowly strangling her while the other was merely happy to get a chance of an actual life. Taking in a deep breath the blonde smiled at her traveling companion, “you know what that smells of, right?” she asked the blue-haired girl who hadn't yet said a word since they disembarked the plane  
“Mmm” the blunette hummed, “freedom and a second fucking chance”  
“Fuck yea!!” the blonde jumped into the air with a cry, “no more lying fathers”  
“No more step-douche”  
“No more Principal dickhead”  
“No more Arcadia Bay”  
“No more Eliot”  
“No more not being allowed to be together. We apparently ended up getting married in Cali”  
“Hence... freedom” the blunette whispered. “Also means that my criminal record is expunged” she added as a second thought  
“How the fuck _did_ June manage all of that?”  
“Do we really want to know? Besides, you haven't even told me what's happening”  
“Not here... We have to wait until we’re somewhere private.” The blonde moved closer so her lips were almost against the blunette's ear and lowered her voice so that even the blunette, the girl she was whispering to, had to strain to hear. “Besides I'm pretty sure me being here isn’t entirely legal”  
“Wait, what? Why would it not...”  
“Hush, not now” the blonde placed her hand over the other girl’s mouth to stop her talking. “I'll explain when we get to wherever we’re going” the blonde started leading the way toward the exit but stopped when she saw a vaguely familiar mop of hair sat at a Starbucks, a mop of hair she had only ever seen in photographs. “Psst” she hissed, indicating the woman with a gesture causing Chloe to stop and gaze in the indicated direction, freezing in shock as her eyes fell upon the hair which was the only thing visible, she was clearly enjoying a coffee, almost certainly a mocha most likely with cream and three sugars. Rachel's eyes had narrowed to thin slits, she hated that brunette with a passion  
“_Max?!_”

*****

Steph sat at the top of the cliff where the lighthouse rose up majestically to tower over everything in the small town, she and June had arranged to meet there, they both wanted to discuss the strange occurrences that had been happening from the horror of June being sought out by the police to be asked questions about an assault that had happened at a party which neither girl had attended to the mysteriously haphazard and unusual behavior of one of the teachers at Steph’s school, Mr. Mark Jefferson who hadn't managed to maintain his normal air of cool detachment and hipster style much beyond lunch the previous day, he looked so anxious that even June had commented on how scared he had been despite not knowing the dude at all. To make matters more concerning, Jefferson hadn't turned up for any of his classes and nobody, not even any of the other teachers had seen him. “What the _hell_ is going on, June?” Steph asked quietly  
“I have no idea. Steph, I really have no idea what's actually going on”  
“But...?”  
“But since I worked in several of the Miami ERs, there were rumors surrounding the occasional body brought in if the deceased was a particularly eminent person”  
“Rumors, what sort?”  
“Rumors of a secret underground society of sorts. They rarely claimed responsibility for any of the deaths so they're mostly rumors but on several occasions, they were referred to by the moniker '_The Guild_' and absolutely did not file any taxes or stuff like that despite having riches far beyond even Sean Prescott and possibly even the Chases”  
“The Guild, huh? Sounds like some ancient society, like some Tabletop Game group”  
“Hm, though it's believed they've been around as long as that game, if not longer.”  
“They're not, strictly speaking, legal. Are they?”  
“No, not really. The Guild is an organization for assassins”  
“Assassins?” _Oh shit. If they really do exist then what the fuck are they doing in shit hick town central?_  
“Mmmhm. Mark Jefferson might be aware of such an organization, and I'm almost certain that someone in Sean Prescott’s position would be”  
“Yea... It was Sean’s son, Nathan that was assaulted by some unnamed woman. You were off in Portland at the time”  
June smiled at the other young woman, “Thanks for proving to the police that I was in Portland by the way”  
“Oh that was nothing, sweetie” Steph kissed June quickly before she continued  
“Anyway, The Guild. Rumors suggest that they publish a list of their members based on a ranking system. They have a webpage of that on the internet”  
“Seems a bit risky?”  
“Oh no, they use a specialist service to hide themselves” June replied, casting a nervous glance around their little clearing at the top of the cliff. “So there's no way of telling if that list is the actual list. They earn from ten k a hit to tens of millions”  
“_Tens_ of millions _per kill_?”  
“Yup. And those are the starting costs mind you”  
“Now I understand why Rachel's dad hired Damon Merrick...” Steph mused, the DA may have been rich but Steph knew that he wouldn't have been rich on that scale, of all the people they knew Victoria Chase could _maybe_ have paid for the hit on Nathan Prescott, assuming that was what it was  
“He would've been a lot less expensive than most of them, only novices charge the minimum after all and they're neither local nor proven”  
Steph nodded in understanding. “So any idea who was impersonating you?”  
“Nope. Not a clue. Probably best not to make inquiries”

*****

Max sat in the arrivals lounge since she preferred the coffee shop in the arrivals lounge compared to the one in the departures, sipping on her coffee and enjoying the sole vice she usually allowed herself, the top of the line analog camera she owned resting in her lap, her instant camera still in her camera bag. She sighed as the caffeine started entering her system _That's better_. She had an hour or two before her flight departed to take her back to California where she would meet her parents at the airport. It had only been a few days since she had seen her parents and yet she still missed them so much, the one person she missed more than her parents was her former best friend, Chloe.  
“Ms. Caulfield?” someone who worked at the airport stood next to her table  
“Mmm?” Max turned her head  
“Your flight will be departing in about an hour, Ms. Caulfield”  
“’Kay, thanks” the hipster turned her attention back to her coffee, dismissing the older woman without a word. _Thank god for that, she's gone_ Max was still the same old timid hipster

“_Max?!_” The hipster was pretty much convinced that she wouldn't ever hear that voice again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what y'all think!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> boo-YAH! I'm back, everyone!

“_Max?!_” Chloe stared dumbfounded at the familiar hairdo from the photographs that Chloe had peeked at on her childhood friend's Facebook which had remained abandoned for years but had once upon a time been where Max uploaded her selfies she had taken as a budding young photographer. _She hasn’t changed her hair in years_  
“_Chloe??_” Max turned her head so quickly that Rachel would later comment to Chloe that she was sure that the brunette would tear her own head off and that she hadn't seen anyone's jaw drop quite as far as the petite hipster’s  
“Max _fuckin'_ Caulfield” Chloe grumbled, she had been saving up quite a lot of gripes over the years since she had seen Max that she could finally unleash at her former best friend  
“You changed your hair” Max spoke having either not heard or ignored Chloe's less than happy tone at seeing her estranged best friend once again. She reached out toward the older girl's blue hair and her expression only showed hurt when Chloe recoiled away from the younger girl's touch. “Chloe?” The brunette had a somewhat desperate expression on her face and somehow also managed to look like a kicked puppy, something that Rachel knew from experience would lead to Chloe thinking about her actions and regretting whatever she had done to lead to that particular expression. Rachel decided to intervene to spare Chloe from regretting her actions toward the traitorous hippie who was sat at the table with such a look of hurt on her face  
_You don't get to do that_. Rachel seethed, “No way. Don't do that shit, Caulfield” Rachel hissed. “You don't get to come crawling back to her after we randomly bump into you at a _goddamn_ airport in goddamn Australia. You left her”  
Max's puppy dog eyes faded slowly into ones of regret and true hurt blossomed on the girl’s childlike features. “I'm sorry” she whispered, scootching a little further from Rachel  
Rachel turned her back on Max and went to lead her girlfriend from the photographer who was trying desperately to hide her quivering lip when the blunette spoke. “You know, there won't be any flights from here to Seattle for another two days, why are you here?”  
“I-I don't live in Seattle anymore” Max replied, going tight-lipped once she’d spoken, whatever it was she really did not want to talk about it.  
“What, since when? Your Facebook presence disappeared some time ago, your account still existed but you went from posting about thirty or forty photos a day to nothing”  
“I haven't been on Facebook for years” Max admitted quietly  
“Why not? You used to love posting your photos”  
“My family and I moved away from Seattle” seemed to be all she wanted to say on the subject but her facade of indifference on the subject seemed to falter slightly, revealing a look of the deepest regret

Chloe watched a single tear run down her hipster best friend’s cheek and wondered why she was getting so upset, at least _her_ father wasn't dead! At least _her_ mother hadn't married a fascist stalker stepdouche!! Rachel meanwhile scoffed and, eager to get away from the hipster, hurried over to the Starbucks where she ordered herself and Chloe a coffee each, Max just staring at her own feet the whole time. After several moments of awkward silence, Max finally found her voice, “I-I'm sorry, Chloe”  
“It's been _years_, Maxine” Chloe frowned severely at her younger friend, Chloe hadn't ever lost her temper with her brunette hipster friend but the resentment resulting from Max's abandonment combined with the stress of what had been happening, the mystery and the intangible threat to both her and her girlfriend, caused the blunette to lose her temper. “Years since you even tried to get in touch with me!! Years since I received a single text from your lazy ass. You didn’t even say goodbye to me, leaving me that damn tape message? 'Even when we're apart. We're still Max and Chloe. I will always, always love you'?” Chloe had listened to the tape enough times to be able to quote it word for word. “I mean it's bad enough that you didn't say goodbye, but that you lied to me as well!? We’re still Max and Chloe?! No, we’re not!! If we had been, you wouldn't have abandoned me! You couldn't stop yourself from going to Seattle, I accept that” _now, at least_. “But that doesn't explain why you didn't call, text, email or even snail mail me!!”  
Max merely whimpered at Chloe's outpouring of grief and betrayal. She had abandoned Chloe, her once upon a time best friend forever and made no effort to keep in touch with her. _What I did was the shittiest thing ever_ Max acknowledged. _Chloe's mad with me and she should be. I need to just take her anger and work through it with her. Though no, she doesn't need someone like me around her, she deserves someone like her girlfriend, like Rachel. I’m so glad..._ Max broke off her internal monologue and stifled her sobs as she shot past a woman who tried to call out to her but was ignored  
“Ms. Caulfield!!” she called, “Ms. Caulfield, your flight to San Diego... Nevermind” she shook her head and walked past the furious blunette and the stunned blonde. There would always be another flight if Max missed that one

*****

“Well,” Chloe looked at the piece of paper that had been resting atop the few bits and pieces in yet another duffel bag they had pulled out of yet another locker. Neither of them had spoken since leaving the airport and neither were willing to broach the subject of Maxine Caulfield. “This is it, our new home” Chloe looked at the piece of paper then back up at the somewhat spacious and affluent looking house as if there had been a mistake. The house was two stories and was in an incredibly good neighborhood, far better than what Chloe was used to and even gained a raised eyebrow from Rachel who was driving their new truck, a Ford F-150 in blue. The keys to the vehicle had been in the duffel bag that Chloe had retrieved from the airport they had landed in, Sydney international airport.  
“Whoooooo!” Rachel cried, snatching the house keys from Chloe's slack hand, like the truck keys and the printed-out address, they had been in the duffel bag, and jumping out of the truck to sprint up to unlock the door. From where she sat in the truck, Chloe could hear the screams of the excited thespian. “Come on, Chloe!!” she crowed, dragging Chloe out of her seat in the truck and up the path across the well-manicured yard and up into the house, her shoes clacking on the floor of the hallway whenever she took a step. “This place is incredible!! Five bedrooms, three bathrooms, an office, a spacious open plan downstairs area and... A pool in the back yard”  
“A pool?” Chloe repeated, unsure if she had heard that correctly  
“A pool, Chloe” the thespian confirmed with a dumbfounded look. “This sorta confirms it. Chloe, that girl we met, June, she's an assassin”  
“An assassin, are you cereal?” Chloe hadn’t even noticed she had used her hipster friend’s vernacular, seeing her at the airport had brought back all the conflicted feelings she had thought she had abandoned years before  
“I am 'cereal’, Chloe”  
“Oh god, I didn't just say that, did I?” the blunette asked quietly only to receive a nod as confirmation. “Oh my god, I've never said any of that hipstery bullshit ever before, Rach, you have to believe me!”  
“I believe your punk-ass”  
Chloe sighed in relief and dropped their duffel bags on the floor in the middle of the open plan living area, no sooner had she done so, Rachel was tugging on her wrist, dragging her toward the fully furnished kitchen. They passed the absolutely ginormous 4k ready TV and all its associated gaming consoles already set out and ready for use. “Wow...” Chloe breathed  
“Come on, you” Rachel pulled her through the kitchen and out another door into their garage which was large enough for two vehicles then back into the house and up the stairs to the upper floor where each bedroom was filled with sumptuous comfort, with some rooms even having four-poster king-sized beds.  
“This... This must've cost a fortune” Chloe mumbled, blushing and embarrassed at being so uncomfortable around such riches.  
“I don't doubt it” Rachel replied, rubbing her hand across Chloe's back soothingly. “If it's too much for you I think I saw some camping gear in the garage, you can sleep outside in a tent of you’d prefer that?”  
“Fuck, no!!”  
“That is the correct answer. Now, come on I gotta show you the yard then we can sit down and talk”  
_Finally... I've been so confused by all this shit for days now, Rachel not to mention terrified_  
Rachel led Chloe to a window at the back of the horse and proudly held out her hands as if framing the window. “Take a look at this, Chloe...”  
Chloe found her breath taken away by the moderately sized yard the window overlooked, in the nearest corner there was a full-sized swimming pool that was built directly onto the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. “Oh, wow...”  
“Stay here, Chloe. I'm going to make a coffee then I'll explain”  
“Okay, Rach”

Rachel was gone a mere five minutes and returned with two coffees in special coffee mugs. “Thanks” Chloe took her coffee and sipped it, humming her delight at the coffee that came from a specialized coffee company and cost a lot compared to the average Starbucks. “That's delicious fuckin' coffee, Rach” Chloe praised  
“It is, isn't it? All a part of our new lifestyle, thanks to June and her parents” Rachel began. “Chloe, I don't have all the answers, for example, whoever wanted me dead.”  
“Someone wanted you dead?! You really were going to be _killed_?!”  
“Yes.” Rachel pulled out a photograph of a photograph and held it up for Chloe's inspection. “This was sent to whoever paid June to kill me so, legally, I'm dead.”  
“That's a bit much to take in, Rach” Chloe mumbled, wrapping her arms around Rachel and pulling her into a hug. “Why didn't June _do it_?” she did not want to say the words  
“That's an interesting question to answer. June spoke to me briefly while you were high on the drugs she gave us then explained more once you'd stormed off. She basically told me that I should be dead and I’m only alive because killing me would break your heart”  
“Hm. June seemed like such a gentle person when I met her at Blackwell”  
“Yea well appearances can be deceiving, can't they ya big blue ball of mushiness”  
“I suppose so” Chloe nodded. “June gave you that photograph?”  
“Yup. She sent the original off to whoever wanted me dead and gave me a copy”  
“This photo is very realistic” Chloe mumbled, “June must be a great photoshopper”  
“Mhm,” Rachel couldn't think of much else to say since she didn't really know anything about photography. “Is that a digital photo? I've never seen one like that before”  
“No, it's not digital” Chloe provided with a quiet reverence in her tone.

*****

Max sniffed once. She had been forced to abandon her nice quiet bathroom stall to catch the flight she needed to get back to her parents in California. On her way to her seat on the airplane, she had scowled at anyone who had looked like they were going to ask her if she was okay. Sitting down, she pulled her knees up to her chin and rested her chin as tears ran silently down her face. The poor hipster girl sat there, for the first time in her life, she felt fully alone. _Chloe... Chloe, I am so, so sorry. I never should've allowed them to pull me away from you at all... Please, forgive me. It doesn't have to be immediately, it doesn't even have to be in the coming months but, one day, I hope you’ll forgive me for everything I've done to you. I love you, Chloe, though I know you don't share those feelings_. “Have a good life, Chlobear”


	12. Chapter 12

It had been several weeks since Chloe and Rachel arrived in Australia and the pair were still trying to grapple with their new circumstances and lifestyle, for once they had settled down in their new home, on the very same day as their arrival, Rachel had explained to Chloe that someone somewhere had paid to have her killed and that the assassin, June Duncan, had spared her life for some reason, something to do with Chloe but that meant they had had to run, leaving everything behind in the effort to continue living for if Rachel was discovered to still be alive, then not only her life would be a target but so would the assassin who failed to kill her. Rachel had spent the rest of the first few days calming Chloe down and talking her down from her desire for revenge but the blunette had quickly settled into her daily routine of lounging by the pool while Rachel prowled around the yard waiting for a phone call that may never come. The reason for Chloe's apparent ease of relaxation was relief, she hadn't forgotten or even forgiven what Rachel had done but hadn’t wanted to dwell on it after Rachel revealed she really was going to be killed. Never one to fade into obscurity, Rachel decided that she would still pursue a life in showbiz; more specifically, voice acting. The young woman suspected that she wouldn't ever be able to pursue her original dream of modeling or acting due to having a price on her head but she didn't want to give up on the dream, plenty of shows and movies used voice acting and she could also be characters who appeared off-screen. As such, she had applied for a scholarship to attend a college with an amazing drama department. She and Chloe had discovered that their new names had been issued with not only passports and driver’s licenses but also with high school graduation certificates and even references, something Chloe had not achieved in her original life. Chloe remained unconcerned about what she wanted to do with the rest of her life which Rachel understood intimately, the blunette hadn’t ever gotten an opportunity to live the life they were leading, not even as part of a vacation so it was understandable that Chloe would desire to just take a break from it all when up until recently, Chloe's entire life had been 'dipped in shit' to paraphrase the punk. Everyone who had even a modicum of power over the blunette had done their part to make things worse for the punk, her mother Joyce, her step-douche David, Principal Wells, Sean Prescott, Victoria Chase, Nathan Prescott, Officer Anderson Berry and even Rachel herself had all contributed to Chloe's state of despair, not that Chloe would ever open up enough to say that she was depressed and suicidal.

“Chloe” the beautiful blonde whispered, truly regretful of everything she had ever done to hurt the blunette  
“Mmm?” she tilted her head up, the pool put her head quite close to ground level so she had to tilt her head back to see anything more than Rachel's ankles.  
“I don't want you to do this” she repeated the same old tired argument as she had used countless times in the past few days to try to dissuade Chloe from the course of action she had already decided for herself  
“I know... But I have to know” Chloe looked up at Rachel, where there had once been softness, there was hardened determination, the only remnant of how Chloe felt about the betrayal  
Rachel sighed, “fine. But I'm coming too”  
“I know. We’d better get ready” with that, Chloe lifted herself out of the pool, grabbed her phone and swaggered off back inside, butt naked. Had it been any other day in any other situation, Rachel might have smiled, or even pulled Chloe aside and out of view of their nonexistent neighbors.

It was almost an hour later when Chloe and Rachel stepped out of their house hand in hand, jumped into their truck and started the short half-hour drive to Sydney. Rachel sat at the wheel while Chloe kept staring down at the tickets in her hands, tickets which she kept fiddling with. “The name of the event is so pretentious” Rachel commented to a light glare from the blunette who then rolled her eyes and smiled.  
“You have nothing to fear” Chloe reassured  
“I know”

*****

A half-hour later, Rachel pulled up in a parking lot, waved the VIP tickets they had purchased and parked up, Rachel's parking attempt a lot neater than those of her girlfriend's who scoffed and rolled her eyes affectionately. Neither of them could understand the others’ attitude to the relatively simple task of parking. Rachel always parked perfectly while Chloe threw the truck in the most inconvenient angle she could and took up as much space as possible. “Come on, let's get this over and done with” Rachel spoke, reluctant to allow Chloe to take her arm and lead her into the building before them.  
Waving their tickets once again gained them access to the building. “Holy shit” Chloe mumbled, gazing around at the amazing architecture of the building and the woman smiled appreciatively.  
Hating to have to pull Chloe from her awestruck view and on to the real reason they came, a reason Rachel still disapproved of, the blonde took her wife's arm once again and guided the punk toward the main display, garnering a few curious glances as they walked. Rachel slipped into her high society mask easily enough but Chloe didn't have the same advantage and earned herself various gazes of varying hostility, it wasn't often that a punk showed interest in the finer aspects of society

Fully intending to whiz Chloe through the display, she instead stopped and her jaw dropped at the sight of the centerpiece to the entire showcase they had come to see.  
“Rach?” Chloe almost walked into her when she stopped suddenly so she had been forced to stop too or knock the young woman off her feet and her gaze slowly moved onto what had Rachel's entire attention. A huge six-foot tall photograph of a blue-haired girl sat atop a table with her head thrown back in laughter had caught the thespian’s attention and the attention of a few other people around them as well.  
“Hoooooly_ shit_”


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look at the past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had inspiration

**1992**

**Somewhere in Africa: unknown warlord's fortress**

“Well, that was fun” A dark-haired woman was stood over several armed assailants with a small smile. “Gonna have to keep practicing, boys” she flicked her hair out of her eyes and quickly placed her foot down on the neck of one of the men who had been scrabbling for a knife that had been dropped a few moments ago. “Stay down” was the only warning given to that man, of her was to disobey she was likely to shatter the man's jaw. The woman had been fighting half-blinded after one of the men had attempted to pull her over using her hair and had only managed to dislodge her hair much less make any meaningful headway toward winning the fight. She had however praised the man in his ingenuity, using what could be a weakness to help defeat a superior opponent. Being the experienced fighter she was meant that it had hardly impacted on her and she had merely retaliated with a knee between the man’s legs, dropping him  
The assailant growled out a reply to the woman in his native language and flung up his arm, aiming to take the woman down by the only option left to him only for his arm to be intercepted and held in an arm lock  
“I warned you, stay down.” The man narrowed his eyes, knowing full well that the woman could snap his arm in two from the position his arm was in. “And don't call me a whore” she added, twisting his arm to break his wrist without applying any further pressure to the boot on his throat or doing further harm to him. “We've been here for three weeks now, and yes. You are improving but you can't beat me in a one on one. Hell, you couldn't even beat me five on one” she shrugged, releasing the man and pushing him away carelessly moments before slamming her foot into his unprotected stomach. “Anyone who tries to attack this place won't show mercy, so neither shall I”

A few moments later the woman was watching the bruised men stand in a line before the Warlord’s Lieutenant, “They are improving” she began. “Slowly, but that's why we're here” she glanced over at another black-haired woman who had also been fighting five armed men who were strewn around on the floor of their dusty makeshift practice area much like her own had been. That had been the routine for the past week or so, the two women squaring off against multiple adversaries who had been drilled intensively for the previous fortnight and then pitted against each other before having to fight the two women. Initially, at the start of their time training, the Warlord's men lasted mere seconds against the women, much to their absolute humiliation since the men had been somewhat derisive of the two women. Three weeks had passed and they were managing to stay on their feet for much longer but none of them had come anywhere near landing a serious blow let alone taking them down  
“Thank you for your time, Emily” the Lieutenant dismissed her with somewhat more respect than the men he commanded. He had, after all, watched the duo independently decimate his men day after day and had even witnessed the demonstration fight for the Warlord who had decided to remain hidden in the shadows as to not reveal his identity to the hitherto untested women. Both women hadn't appeared to hold back in their fight against each other but were so evenly matched that they fought to a stalemate after which they wiped the floor with the 'five best warriors' in a demonstration of just how superior they were to the best of the grunts that could be trained without their assistance and therefore demonstrate they were worth the cold hard cash they demanded.  
“We will be going for our evening run now” Emily gestured at the other woman, her sister, Emma who nodded and simply walked away from the somewhat heated argument she was having with the guy who called Emily a whore having marked him for a severe beat down or even to be killed the next day. “We will be back later”

The first few times the women left the safety of the compound they had been tailed by a less-than-careful man who was promptly put six feet under on the third evening of their stay since, had they had an ulterior motive, one spy wouldn't have stopped them anyway. The Lieutenant had ordered them to be followed since there were assets that couldn't be found by anyone outside their organization, not even the two women who were professional assassins whose organization, The Guild, was rising in prominence in addition to having been paid a lot of money for the simple job of training the Warlord's men. They trained the men during the day but the evenings were theirs to do with as they pleased, hence their evening runs that often went late into the night

It was about five hours later when Emma returned alone, was waved through the compound’s outer gate and one of the men on guard asked Emma where her sister was in the same native tongue as the other men, for they guessed they were identical twins from the get-go but hadn't been given the opportunity to ask since the two assassins never interacted with the men outside of training. “She’ll be back shortly” Emma replied, speaking in English despite knowing how to speak the man's language. “She just wanted to check something out”  
The guard shrugged and let her continue on, it wasn't really any of his business and he liked to stay alive so he didn't challenge her further. Emma walked quickly to one of the larger buildings in the compound and the lieutenant came out moments later. “Emma.” He was curt with her but also wary  
“Tell me, what do you know of The Guild’s Morality Clause?” she asked in the man's native language  
Thrown by the sudden use of his own language it took him a mite longer to reply. “The Morality Clause?” he asked  
“Yea. The Morality Clause, the only rule that we have” She didn't think the other rules, rules that mostly governed prices and when assassins could interfere with another’s kill or contract were relevant. “The rule that governs our entire organization. Like when we can break contracts, interfere with another contract, or kill indiscriminately?”  
“No, I've never heard of that” the man admitted, suddenly more concerned about the lack of Emily's appearance, the sisters were almost always together or at least within the vicinity of each other except when in the bathroom or in bed. “It's important?”  
“Very” Emma wasn't surprised that the man hadn't heard of it. Though it was no secret, most people just paid them to do their job without attempting to look into an organization that was, by its very nature quite low key  
“Then how does it apply here?”

There was a brief pause in which three tiny cracks echoed out across the dunes followed by three muffled thumps. “It applies because we do not tolerate slavery” Emma didn't have to look to know that Emily, who had been hiding behind the tip of a sand dune a mile or two away, had shot the three men in the watchtowers with pinpoint accuracy and, had she checked the corpses, the bullet would have gone straight through their hearts  
Emma reached up over her shoulder, a clear indication of hostility since the men she and her sister had been training only a few hours beforehand were suddenly totally alert and fiddling with their own holsters. “Slavery? I don't understand?” the Lieutenant bluffed  
“Slavery. You are using slave labor in your mine and therefore it's our moral duty to take you out” Emma moved her hand and withdrew a massive, viciously serrated blade from a holster on her back that was a good fifteen inches long. _This'll be all too easy_. “It’s also hopeless. Your grunts are shit”  
_Oh shiiiiii-_ The Lieutenant's eyes widened in shock at seeing the huge blade the woman had clearly been carrying around the whole time and didn't even have the opportunity to step back before the blade was embedded in his neck, his last thought cut off before he could finish it. Emma turned to face the shocked grunts and lifted her blade, splitting it into two identical ones.

The Guild was an organization for assassins and therefore its members often did very questionable things for huge sums of cash or failing that, large quantities of precious metals or sometimes even diamonds but there were a few things that they did not stand for and would intervene to stop. Pedophilia, child abuse, human trafficking, sex trafficking and rape gangs were among a few of the things that Emma and Emily had personally prevented with even more excessively violent interventions than usual and they were reacting no differently upon discovering the slaves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter!! Thought I'd try something different:)


	14. Chapter 14

“Wow...” Chloe was inspecting the centerpiece to the entire display. A huge six-foot photograph of a blue-haired girl sat atop a bench table with her head thrown back in laughter. The blue-haired girl was sat with a dark-skinned male, a blonde with pink-tipped hair and an auburn-haired girl visible yet blurred in the background, little figurines also visible in the foreground. The focal point of the photograph was the blue-haired girl who was the perfect image of joy  
“Chlo...” Rachel nudged her. She had read the title of the photograph and had then looked around at the crowd who were whispering and pointing. “I think I need to go wait out by the car” she whispered reluctantly  
Chloe glanced over, startled and saddened that the woman she loved was fleeing but she could work out why she did, Rachel didn't want to be recognized for the girl in the photo was her girlfriend, Chloe Price in all her beauty. Rachel had changed her makeup and hair up somewhat and dyed the latter black but still didn't want to risk being recognized. How that photograph had been taken was something that Chloe was mulling over, for the photograph's angle was peculiar, to say the least

“Excuse me” some random guy in a suit spoke to Chloe with a smile  
“Yea?” Chloe replied with a curiously raised eyebrow  
“I can't help but notice that the girl in the photograph looks like you.” He explained with a gesture at the photograph  
“Really?” Chloe didn't want to risk being recognized. “I'm flattered but...”  
“I have to agree, you do share a likeness with the old friend that's never been forgotten” another man spoke, agreeing with the first man  
“That’s the title of this work?” Chloe furrowed her brows in confusion, she had thought that friend had forgotten her  
“Yes. It's '_Old Friend, Never Forgotten_’ and it's a genuine Caulfield” the first man replied, “I've been angling after some of her works ever since I noticed some of the small details. I've never seen such a high level of detail or accuracy in an analog photograph before, and I couldn't help but realize you looked like that woman”  
“Thank you, but...” Chloe attempted to redirect the conversation despite feeling the slightest hint of curiosity and jealousy at 'Caulfield’. _Was that what she was doing here, opening this event?_  
“Nonsense.” The man shook his head. “You are being too humble, I've been a photographer my whole life and you can't fool me. Not only do you look almost identical to her, but you also recognized the scene”  
Chloe was about to shake her head and deny it again when someone else joined them and sighed. “Wow. I never knew you could look like _that_, Price”  
“_Victoria_??” Chloe exclaimed, she hadn't expected to see the preppy blonde but should have known that she would probably pop up sooner or later at such an event  
“I see you know each other. Aren't you going to introduce me, Victoria?” the man asked  
“Sure, dad. Chloe, this is Christopher Chase, my father” Victoria explained with a reluctant smile. What Christopher Chase wanted, Christopher Chase ended up getting  
“Chase? Chase Space Chase?” Chloe's brows furrowed. Her ex-best friend had always gone on about that place, ever since she had read about it in a photography magazine  
“Yea that's me” he nodded, ignoring Victoria's confused pout. “You know of me? Forgive me, I find it surprising since your whole image isn't exactly an image associated with the finer forms of art”  
“You can say it, you know.” Chloe stated calmly. “You'd expect me to be off drawing Street art, not knowing of the Chase Space, even if I do know your daughter, well, kinda”  
“I would never say anything so coarse” he looked at his daughter sternly as if knowing that, had he not been there, she would have made a disparaging remark about what she would consider to be the piece of trailer trash stood before them.  
“You're right though. I'm not exactly the sorta person who would seem at all interested in photography, had I not known a photographer while growing up.” She gazed at the photograph. _How exactly did that little shit take that photo without me noticing her?_  
“Ms. Caulfield?” Christopher asked  
“Uh, yes, actually” Chloe nodded with a smile  
“Well I’d like to discuss potential modeling opportunities with you,” Victoria's mouth fell open. “You can take some time to mull it over, of course. Discuss it with your family but I’d like to see you appear in more of our photography. We’ll also continue trying to reach Ms. Caulfield” he smiled again. The gallery in Australia was the first big appearance for the Seattleite hipster but he had seen some of her photography in various places

“Are you okay?” Rachel asked once Chloe joined her in the parking lot. The poor beleaguered blunette had been pestered with questions ever since the Chase patriarch had spoken to her and it had kept her in the gallery for far longer than she had intended. Offers of work as a model from multiple people who found her rough aesthetic to be beautiful and multiple attempts to use her to get in touch with Max Caulfield who Chloe had lost touch with years ago, the last she heard the hipster was living in Seattle. “Mrs. Byrne?” Rachel found herself having to speak again and reach out to bring Chloe back from her thoughts  
“Yeah, I'm fine. Ra... I mean, _Mrs. Byrne_,” the couple had played that game before, pretending to not really know each other all that well. “It’s a good thing you left when you did. Victoria was there, and I met her father”  
“Victoria? Victoria Chase?”  
“Yup,” Chloe nodded. “Who else knows that you're alive?”  
“June. What about you?”  
“Steph, June and Mikey. Well, Max too, I guess. Mom and step-douche have no idea, nor does anyone else”  
“So it's probably best that nobody else knows that we’re here. If word gets back to whoever tried to kill me, they'll probably send someone else who won't risk their future to save me. The Guild would also kill June for failing her assignment”  
“I don't know why she risked herself for us but she did and I'm glad. Did you get her last name?” Rachel had told Chloe that before but Chloe hadn’t yet remembered it  
“Yea. Duncan”  
“Something’s been bothering me for awhile, ever since we landed here in Sydney actually. Only thing is I can't place my finger on it” Chloe admitted. Something about their new life bugged her and she couldn't, for the life of her, work out what it was

*****

Somewhere very far away, a young woman turned the key in the door to her house with a small smile, catching sight of the high-end track day car that had been her eighteenth birthday present, a toy for her since it couldn't really be driven on the highway, and with a roll of her eyes, she stepped into the house. “I'm home!” she called out  
“Max!!” a woman called back, jogging out to meet her. “I missed you so much!” the woman’s dark hair was tied up in a loose ponytail and she was wearing light training clothes, her body covered in a light sheen of sweat from her workout. “I was hoping you'd get back early today, how was Australia? And your first ever gallery showing?!” She was so excited. Max had been working toward having her photographs in a gallery for so long  
Max's joyous expression faltered. “_Mom_” she breathed  
“Hey. Sweetie... I'm here. What's wrong?” Max's mom paused, she had expected Max to be full of excitement over finally making it into an international gallery but all she was getting was a beaten-down young woman who had seen a ghost  
“I saw _her_ in Australia, mom,” Max whispered

The woman, Max's mother's, eyes widened. “And how was _she_?” No further explanation as to who Max was referring to was necessary, Chloe Price. Oldest and best_est_ childhood friend not to mention secret crush. Greatest regret.  
“She was glorious, mom” Max whispered, with a hint of pain hiding behind her smile. “She had a _girlfriend_. Rachel Amber.”  
“Oh. Right.” An expression of intense pain crossed the mother's face before she spoke again, she was only one of two people who truly understood the scope of the hipster's feelings for the other girl. “Well, why don't we head down to the raceway, we can do some laps to take your mind off it” she suggested with a small smile. “I know you want to” they both knew Max didn't want to dwell on Chloe and that it wouldn't be a wise decision to let her  
“Heh. Sure, mom.” Max let out a small smile, “Can I take the Zonda, _pleeeeease_?”  
“Only if I get a go”  
“When I’ve made enough money from my photography, I'll be sure to buy you one”  
Max's mom looked up from her phone, chuckling. She had been coordinating with the missing member of their little family, aside from Chloe, and had agreed to meet at Willow Springs, Max's second favorite raceway. “Well we’ll reunite at the raceway then, all three of us”  
“Awesome!” Max let a tiny grin filled with almost childish wonder. “I still say you spent too much on me for my birthday” _Who knew two lawyers could make so much money?_  
“Nonsense.” A wild grin appeared on her face, “Our daughter was only ever going to turn eighteen once. Now get that hipstery behind out the door”

Max sprinted out of the door and over to her toy, she placed her hand on it lovingly and opened the door. “Come on mom, let's go!!” It was a three-hour trip to get to Willow Springs from where they were, or at least it was at legal speeds, and Max was eager to get going


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoiler: **big** reveal coming up!  
Also double chapter for passing a thousand hits:)  
Thank you all!

The woman named June sat on her bed. She was deep in thought, it had been a rough few days for her since her failed mission and she was feeling really depressed. Aside from having been forced to order hits on not just Mark Jefferson but Sean Prescott as well and her word had sent Nathan Prescott into persistent paranoia as payback for what the boy had done to many women, even if he had been manipulated he had enjoyed his work helping 'the great Mark Jefferson', the orders she had given eagerly yet it hadn’t been enough to bring her out of her low mood.

Sean Prescott had been her target, the Prescott patriarch had been using his extensive corporate empire to clandestinely move Jefferson’s illicit photographs around to their paying recipients and she had killed him in his office on the Prescott estate without hesitation, though he had scared her with various threats upon the realization that she hadn’t actually completed her contract. He was scarily intelligent. Nathan had been Jefferson's assistant and therefore she had asked her mother just to scare him. Emily had agreed, albeit reluctantly. Emma had no such desire to listen to her daughter, there was no way Jefferson would’ve survived even if June had asked Emma to keep him alive. The young woman had enjoyed spending time with her parents since but they hadn't quite been able to break her out of her contemplative, near depressive moods. Inevitably, when depressed she found herself thinking back to the very first mission she had completed and it almost always cheered her up. She had been trained half to death by her mothers before ever being allowed anywhere near a situation where she would need to kill anyone, the contract that had established her as a member of The Guild was one of her favorite recent memories, and one that suited her, or rather her alter-ego, _L. M. S._ The day of her first ever contract was also the day she learned she could actually make a difference.

*****

Flashback: around late 2009, possibly early 2010  
“Well, aren't you the sweete' lil' thing?” the man asked, showing off his rotten teeth. A younger June had stepped into his club, she was striking out alone for the first time in her life and her first assignment was considered to be critical as it would either open a membership spot up for her, or she would be killed. The teenaged June had been training relentlessly for a good year in order to get a working understanding of the requirement that she would be expected to meet on her contracts and it was no longer viable for her parents to keep her sidelined. The Guild had found out that their top two contract killers were training someone, a teenaged girl and so they were under increasing pressure to get her out into the field despite, or perhaps because of the risks that came along with that.  
_Ew. Gross, dude_. “Nice to meet you” she replied, pretending to be a nervous teen, having her first real meeting to decide her future in the art world. Her assignment was simple; eliminate the man with no witnesses. The latter was just as important for if she was to be identified, The Guild would not intervene to save her from prosecution, nor would they waste funds or valuable favors on breaking her out of jail the way they would do so for her parents, her parents, as the Global Top Two were extremely valuable to The Guild and she, as a newbie, wasn’t

“I hear yer lookin' for someone to sponsor yer ar'?” the disgusting, smelly man stated in his uncouth tone. The club had looked respectable from outside but she would have begun to have her doubts once she stepped inside had she really been there to get paid for art, had she not known everything there was to know about the disgusting man who owned the club that was a front for his disgusting crimes. The contract was a perfect fit for The Guild's newest member, not high profile enough to have her fighting trained killers, at most she would face down some goons. It was also not in the public eye and even relatively simple for her to get an in with the owner of the club

“Yea...” the youngster looked around at the display of artwork dotted in amongst the ostentatious displays of wealth and had to stop herself reaching for the comforting familiarity of the cool metal hidden behind her. She was a child so had evaded the customary pat-down. A mistake that would hopefully prove to be costly, for them  
“’Ow much d’ya wan’?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows slightly.  
“Two thousand bucks apiece” she stated. It was a reasonable price, nowhere near the true value of her work but it was better to be safe than sorry. The idea was that he would hopefully get her name, or at least her artist’s identity out into the world  
“Le’s see if ya 'ave any I like!” the overly pudgy man with the awful teeth exclaimed eagerly. He would be able to use the teen to increase his own status once he had a contract with her. She seemed young and naive

After an hour of looking through the teen's art portfolio, he spoke. “Well, I guess you have yerself a deal. Le's shake on it” the man offered, Franz was his name and he had taken a liking to multiple pieces of her art. He found her skilled for her age and wondered what other skills she was yet to discover and how many of them would be profitable for him  
The youngster slowly extended her right hand for a shake even as their left dropped to the familiarly comforting weight tucked into the back of her pants. “Coolio” _I just said that it loud didn't I, how uncool_  
“Wha’s yer name, young 'un, yer _real_ one?” Previously she had given her artist’s name; _L. M. S._  
“It's Max. Max Caulfield” she replied with a light smile, she knew reckoning was coming for that man. She would have the privilege of being said reckoning. Either that, or she would die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Max is in The Guild, not some unknown Future Max but the poor, baffled, perplexed present Max. (or is that all an act?)
> 
> Conclusion to Max's first contract coming soon!!
> 
> Please leave reviews!!

**Author's Note:**

> Y'all know the drill by now, comment or kudos if you think this is worth continuing


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